Signaturefd LLC Purchases 1,196 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Signaturefd LLC boosted its position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 14.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 9,672 shares of the airline’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,196 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $279,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in LUV. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH raised its stake in Southwest Airlines by 106.5% in the 3rd quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 2,556,536 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $69,205,000 after acquiring an additional 1,318,361 shares during the period. U S Global Investors Inc. grew its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 24.9% during the 4th quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. now owns 6,210,347 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $179,355,000 after buying an additional 1,238,468 shares in the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Southwest Airlines during the 3rd quarter valued at about $13,193,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 34.9% during the 3rd quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 1,619,499 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $43,840,000 after buying an additional 418,624 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp purchased a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines during the fourth quarter worth about $10,277,000. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on LUV. Susquehanna cut their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. StockNews.com lowered Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $20.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.18.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of LUV stock opened at $27.04 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.09. Southwest Airlines Co. has a fifty-two week low of $21.91 and a fifty-two week high of $39.53. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $30.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.53. The company has a market capitalization of $16.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.91, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.15.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The airline reported ($0.36) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.34) by ($0.02). Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 8.91% and a net margin of 1.59%. The business had revenue of $6.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.27) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio 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.