Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.18

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 21st,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be paid a dividend of 0.18 per share by the airline on Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 26th.

Southwest Airlines has increased its dividend by an average of 71.0% per year over the last three years. Southwest Airlines has a payout ratio of 45.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Southwest Airlines to earn $1.55 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 46.5%.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of LUV opened at $31.97 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.63. Southwest Airlines has a 12-month low of $23.58 and a 12-month high of $35.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10. Southwest Airlines had a negative net margin of 0.06% and a positive return on equity of 4.56%. The business had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.38 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Southwest Airlines will post 0.75 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LUV has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America began coverage on Southwest Airlines in a research note on Monday, November 4th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $33.00 target price for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price target on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.78.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Rakesh Gangwal purchased 643,788 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were bought at an average cost of $29.98 per share, with a total value of $19,300,764.24. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $108,117,203.78. This represents a 21.73 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total transaction of $35,912,933.60. Following the sale, the insider now owns 59,912,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,787,192,261.40. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Southwest Airlines Company Profile

Southwest Airlines Co operates as a passenger airline company that provides scheduled air transportation services in the United States and near-international markets. As of December 31, 2023, the company operated a total fleet of 817 Boeing 737 aircraft; and served 121 destinations in 42 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as ten near-international countries, including Mexico, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Belize, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos.