Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) in a report published on Thursday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm issued an equal weight rating and a $45.00 target price on the airline’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Barclays raised Southwest Airlines from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $34.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on Southwest Airlines in a research note on Tuesday, December 9th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $43.00 price objective for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.94.

Southwest Airlines Trading Down 0.6%

NYSE:LUV opened at $40.75 on Thursday. Southwest Airlines has a 1 year low of $23.82 and a 1 year high of $43.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 0.49. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $34.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $33.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.69, a PEG ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 1.17.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The airline reported ($0.38) EPS for the quarter. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 6.39% and a net margin of 1.38%.The company had revenue of $6.17 billion for the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines will post 1.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 26th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 26th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 110.77%.

Institutional Trading of Southwest Airlines

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in LUV. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in Southwest Airlines by 43.7% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 12,335,167 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $393,615,000 after purchasing an additional 3,753,183 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 13.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 12,218,086 shares of the airline’s stock worth $389,879,000 after buying an additional 1,459,235 shares in the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership grew its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 0.9% during the second quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 10,763,935 shares of the airline’s stock worth $349,182,000 after buying an additional 98,290 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 2,403.8% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 10,120,368 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $328,305,000 after buying an additional 9,716,160 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 9.2% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,837,197 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $218,175,000 after buying an additional 577,326 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

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.