International Assets Investment Management LLC Acquires 143,304 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 2,207.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 149,797 shares of the airline’s stock after purchasing an additional 143,304 shares during the quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $4,326,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH increased its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 106.5% in the third quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 2,556,536 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $69,205,000 after purchasing an additional 1,318,361 shares during the period. U S Global Investors Inc. grew its position in shares of 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 valued at $179,355,000 after buying an additional 1,238,468 shares during the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the third quarter valued at about $13,193,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 34.9% during the third quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 1,619,499 shares of the airline’s stock worth $43,840,000 after acquiring an additional 418,624 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the fourth quarter worth approximately $10,277,000. Institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $28.00 to $42.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Susquehanna lowered their price target on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $28.00 to $20.00 in a report on Monday, April 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.24.

Southwest Airlines Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock opened at $27.19 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $29.27 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The company has a market cap of $16.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.16, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.16. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 12-month low of $21.91 and a 12-month high of $39.53.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The airline reported ($0.36) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.34) by ($0.02). The firm 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 for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.27) EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.