Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Shares Sold by Mather Group LLC.

Mather Group LLC. lowered its position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 33.4% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,822 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 1,415 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC.’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $84,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in LUV. Pineridge Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Southwest Airlines during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $277,000. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 4th quarter worth approximately $289,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 1st quarter worth approximately $438,000. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 10.7% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 21,442 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $626,000 after buying an additional 2,071 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on LUV. Jefferies Financial Group raised Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $24.00 to $32.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $19.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on shares of 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. 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 research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.02.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Rakesh Gangwal acquired 643,788 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were bought at an average price of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at $108,117,203.78. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

LUV stock opened at $30.62 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $28.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $27.99. The company has a market cap of $18.32 billion, a PE ratio of 48.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 12-month low of $21.91 and a 12-month high of $35.18.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its earnings results 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 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 quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.09 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.54 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.35%. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is 114.29%.

Southwest Airlines 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.