Norden Group LLC Buys 257,410 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Norden Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 1,717.4% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 272,398 shares of the airline’s stock after acquiring an additional 257,410 shares during the quarter. Norden Group LLC’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $7,951,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in LUV. State of Alaska Department of Revenue lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 0.6% in the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 64,743 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,889,000 after buying an additional 370 shares during the period. Olstein Capital Management L.P. lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 4.7% in the first quarter. Olstein Capital Management L.P. now owns 270,000 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $7,881,000 after buying an additional 12,000 shares during the period. Financial Partners Group LLC acquired a new position in Southwest Airlines in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,100,000. MCF Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 94.0% during the first quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 1,381 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 669 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Total Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 88.2% during the first quarter. Total Investment Management Inc. now owns 25,352 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $740,000 after acquiring an additional 11,882 shares in the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on LUV shares. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 26th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 26th. UBS Group started coverage on Southwest Airlines in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $36.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $26.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.83.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of LUV opened at $28.58 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.09. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52-week low of $21.91 and a 52-week high of $39.53.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The airline reported ($0.36) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.34) by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $6.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.42 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 8.91% and a net margin of 1.59%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.27) EPS. Research analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 10th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 18th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.52%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 114.29%.

About Southwest Airlines

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.