Morgan Stanley Reaffirms Overweight Rating for Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV)

Morgan Stanley restated their overweight rating on shares of Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $42.00 price target on the airline’s stock.

LUV has been the subject of a number of other reports. Evercore ISI upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Bank of America began coverage on Southwest Airlines in a research report on Monday, November 4th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $33.00 target price on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.37.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 0.4 %

LUV traded up $0.12 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $33.70. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 192,353 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,068,215. Southwest Airlines has a 1 year low of $23.58 and a 1 year high of $36.12. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $31.62 and its 200-day moving average is $29.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -479.43, a PEG ratio of 7.98 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.10. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The business had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Southwest Airlines will post 0.75 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 26th. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is -1,028.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southwest Airlines

In other Southwest Airlines news, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.40, for a total value of $132,405.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 89,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,074,534.40. This trade represents a 4.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total value of $35,912,933.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 59,912,580 shares in the company, valued at $1,787,192,261.40. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Southwest Airlines

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Southwest Airlines in the second quarter valued at $29,000. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in Southwest Airlines in the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines during the third quarter worth about $33,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 41.1% in the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 1,184 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 345 shares during the period. Finally, AM Squared Ltd purchased a new position in Southwest Airlines in the second quarter worth $37,000. 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.