California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 65,793 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

California Public Employees Retirement System decreased its position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 5.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,081,156 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 65,793 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $31,224,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. U S Global Investors Inc. lifted its position in Southwest Airlines by 24.9% in the 4th quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. now owns 6,210,347 shares of the airline’s stock worth $179,355,000 after buying an additional 1,238,468 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Southwest Airlines by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,866,933 shares of the airline’s stock worth $131,748,000 after purchasing an additional 32,089 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Southwest Airlines by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,077,158 shares of the airline’s stock worth $83,299,000 after purchasing an additional 23,715 shares during the period. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH increased its stake in Southwest Airlines by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 2,606,555 shares of the airline’s stock worth $75,277,000 after purchasing an additional 50,019 shares during the period. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC increased its stake in Southwest Airlines by 34.9% in the 3rd quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 1,619,499 shares of the airline’s stock worth $43,840,000 after purchasing an additional 418,624 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on LUV shares. StockNews.com cut Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. TD Cowen decreased their price target on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Southwest Airlines from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Argus raised Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Four equities research 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.18.

Southwest Airlines Trading Down 0.8 %

Southwest Airlines stock opened at $27.03 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $30.34 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $28.55. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 12 month low of $21.91 and a 12 month high of $39.53. The company has a market capitalization of $16.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.15.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The airline reported ($0.36) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.34) by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $6.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.42 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 8.91% and a net margin of 1.59%. The company’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.27) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

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