Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Purchases 295,744 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 6.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,226,164 shares of the airline’s stock after acquiring an additional 295,744 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned 0.88% of Southwest Airlines worth $189,235,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the first quarter valued at approximately $391,000. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 21.9% in the first quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 63,063 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $2,052,000 after acquiring an additional 11,348 shares during the last quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 6.6% in the first quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 22,507 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $726,000 after acquiring an additional 1,396 shares during the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 15.1% in the second quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 11,713 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $424,000 after acquiring an additional 1,538 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 6.9% in the first quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 18,361 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $597,000 after acquiring an additional 1,178 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on LUV shares. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $34.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $20.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 29th. Redburn Partners cut shares of Southwest Airlines from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $27.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, August 7th. Raymond James dropped their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. Finally, Melius cut shares of Southwest Airlines from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 13th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $32.06.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock opened at $24.79 on Friday. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 1 year low of $21.91 and a 1 year high of $40.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The company has a market capitalization of $14.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.16. The business has a 50-day moving average of $25.70 and a two-hundred day moving average of $30.27.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 26th. The airline reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 5.08% and a net margin of 1.95%. The business had revenue of $6.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.50 EPS. Southwest Airlines’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.38 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 21st will be given a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 20th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.90%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio is currently 96.00%.

Southwest Airlines Company Profile

Southwest Airlines Co operates as a passenger airline company that provide scheduled air transportation services in the United States and near-international markets. As of December 31, 2022, the company operated a total fleet of 770 Boeing 737 aircrafts; 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.