Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Position Reduced by Kingsview Wealth Management LLC

Kingsview Wealth Management LLC lowered its stake in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 24,238 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 1,399 shares during the period. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $718,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of LUV. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the second quarter valued at about $29,000. CVA Family Office LLC increased its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 179.5% in the 2nd quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 1,034 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 664 shares during the last quarter. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, AM Squared Ltd bought a new position in Southwest Airlines during the second quarter worth $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 5th. StockNews.com raised shares of Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Evercore ISI raised Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “sell” rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.25.

Insider Activity at Southwest Airlines

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

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of LUV opened at $32.36 on Thursday. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52-week low of $23.58 and a 52-week high of $35.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.41 billion, a PE ratio of -462.29, a P/E/G ratio of 7.58 and a beta of 1.15. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $30.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.75. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.77 billion. Southwest Airlines had a negative net margin of 0.06% and a positive return on equity of 4.56%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.38 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be issued a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.22%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -1,028.57%.

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.