Barclays Lowers Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) to Equal Weight

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV – Get Rating) was downgraded by investment analysts at Barclays from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report issued on Friday, The Fly reports. They presently have a $38.00 target price on the airline’s stock, down from their prior target price of $42.00. Barclays‘s price target would suggest a potential upside of 15.96% from the company’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $56.00 to $52.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 27th. Raymond James cut their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 5th. Susquehanna lowered shares of Southwest Airlines from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, January 11th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Southwest Airlines from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 12th. Finally, Redburn Partners lowered shares of Southwest Airlines from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.27.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of LUV stock opened at $32.77 on Friday. Southwest Airlines has a 1 year low of $30.20 and a 1 year high of $50.10. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $35.12 and its 200-day moving average is $35.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.96, a PEG ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 26th. The airline reported ($0.38) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by ($0.35). Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 6.71% and a net margin of 2.26%. The company had revenue of $6.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.14 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.14 earnings per share. Southwest Airlines’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines will post 2.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 1.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,861,508 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $2,000,330,000 after acquiring an additional 638,015 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 17.6% in the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 33,378,877 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,205,645,000 after acquiring an additional 4,992,817 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,213,320 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $613,243,000 after acquiring an additional 1,269,782 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 91,675.0% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,296,139 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $515,021,000 after acquiring an additional 15,279,472 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,892,153 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $399,914,000 after acquiring an additional 285,836 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.71% of the company’s stock.

About Southwest Airlines

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Southwest Airlines Co engages in the operation and management of a passenger airline. The firm also offers ancillary services such as early bird check-in, upgraded boarding, and transportation of pets and unaccompanied minors. It operates in the United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Mexico, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Aruba, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Belize, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos.