Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Price Target Raised to $31.50

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) had its target price raised by research analysts at Citigroup from $28.25 to $31.50 in a research note issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the airline’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 4.69% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on LUV. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $29.00 target price (down from $32.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.21.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock traded up $0.52 on Thursday, reaching $30.09. The stock had a trading volume of 5,186,415 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,554,028. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $27.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $27.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Southwest Airlines has a 1 year low of $21.91 and a 1 year high of $35.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.17, a P/E/G ratio of 26.83 and a beta of 1.17.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The airline reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.07. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 0.41% and a return on equity of 5.92%. The firm had revenue of $7.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.32 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.09 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines will post 0.24 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Southwest Airlines

In other Southwest Airlines news, Director Rakesh Gangwal bought 643,788 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was acquired at an average price of $29.98 per share, with a total value of $19,300,764.24. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 3,606,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $108,117,203.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 3.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,569,773 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,972,362,000 after purchasing an additional 2,148,435 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 14.9% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 61,422,187 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,792,914,000 after purchasing an additional 7,946,199 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 21.6% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,828,166 shares of the airline’s stock worth $166,742,000 after buying an additional 1,034,496 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the second quarter valued at approximately $48,551,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 629.5% in the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,590,298 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $45,498,000 after acquiring an additional 1,372,305 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

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.