Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Price Target Lowered to $26.00 at Barclays

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) had its price target dropped by analysts at Barclays from $30.00 to $26.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the airline’s stock. Barclays‘s price target indicates a potential downside of 3.81% from the stock’s current price.

LUV has been the subject of several other research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $26.00 to $32.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $28.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Susquehanna cut their target price on Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. TD Cowen cut their target price on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Argus raised Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.18.

Southwest Airlines Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE LUV opened at $27.03 on Friday. Southwest Airlines has a 12 month low of $21.91 and a 12 month high of $39.53. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $16.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.90, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.15. The business has a 50-day moving average of $30.34 and a 200-day moving average of $28.55.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The airline reported ($0.36) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.27) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Southwest Airlines will post 1.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Southwest Airlines

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Gradient Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 37.8% during the fourth quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 378,428 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $10,929,000 after acquiring an additional 103,834 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 32.4% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 506,762 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $14,635,000 after acquiring an additional 124,054 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 0.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,077,158 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $83,299,000 after acquiring an additional 23,715 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 24.8% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 823,779 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $22,506,000 after acquiring an additional 163,544 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Advisor Resource Council raised its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 53.7% during the fourth quarter. Advisor Resource Council now owns 14,826 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $428,000 after acquiring an additional 5,178 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

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.