Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Stock Holdings Decreased by Howard Financial Services LTD.

Howard Financial Services LTD. cut its holdings in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 22,412 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 353 shares during the period. Howard Financial Services LTD.’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $664,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of LUV. State of Alaska Department of Revenue lifted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 64,743 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,889,000 after acquiring an additional 370 shares during the period. Axiom Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 2.1% in the third quarter. Axiom Advisory LLC now owns 18,306 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $507,000 after acquiring an additional 375 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 5.0% in the first quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 8,055 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $235,000 after acquiring an additional 382 shares in the last quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 35.4% in the second quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 1,487 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 389 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 0.8% during the second quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 51,395 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,470,000 after purchasing an additional 416 shares during the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

NYSE:LUV opened at $30.94 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.52 billion, a PE ratio of 48.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 14.88 and a beta of 1.17. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $28.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $27.95. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 12-month low of $21.91 and a 12-month high of $35.18. 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 (NYSE:LUV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The airline reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.07. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 5.92% and a net margin of 0.41%. The business had revenue of $7.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.32 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.09 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.33%. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is presently 114.29%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LUV has been the subject of several analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a report on Wednesday. Barclays increased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. BNP Paribas raised Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $29.71.

Insider Transactions at Southwest Airlines

In other news, Director Rakesh Gangwal acquired 643,788 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were acquired at an average price 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $108,117,203.78. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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.