Allworth Financial LP Boosts Stake in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Allworth Financial LP lifted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 8.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,742 shares of the airline’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,143 shares during the quarter. Allworth Financial LP’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $426,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of LUV. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 91,675.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,296,139 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $515,021,000 after buying an additional 15,279,472 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 39.7% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 21,991,802 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $715,615,000 after buying an additional 6,244,136 shares in the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 106.5% in the 3rd quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 2,556,536 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $69,205,000 after buying an additional 1,318,361 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Southwest Airlines in the 4th quarter valued at about $44,210,000. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,213,320 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $613,243,000 after buying an additional 1,269,782 shares in the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE LUV opened at $29.05 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.42. The company has a market capitalization of $17.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.73, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.07. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 1 year low of $21.91 and a 1 year high of $39.53.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The airline reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.25. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.91% and a return on equity of 9.40%. The firm had revenue of $6.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.75 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.38) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were issued a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.48%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 96.00%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LUV has been the topic of a number of research reports. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Susquehanna decreased their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Argus upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, January 28th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $26.00 to $32.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.82.

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.