Greenleaf Trust Purchases 441 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Greenleaf Trust lifted its position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 5.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,914 shares of the airline’s stock after acquiring an additional 441 shares during the quarter. Greenleaf Trust’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $229,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in LUV. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH raised its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,318,361 shares in the last quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. grew its stake in Southwest Airlines by 24.9% in the fourth quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. now owns 6,210,347 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $179,355,000 after purchasing an additional 1,238,468 shares during the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Southwest Airlines in the third quarter valued at about $13,193,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC grew its stake in Southwest Airlines by 34.9% in the third quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 1,619,499 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $43,840,000 after purchasing an additional 418,624 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp purchased a new position in Southwest Airlines in the fourth quarter valued at about $10,277,000. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LUV has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group initiated coverage on Southwest Airlines in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $36.00 target price on the stock. Argus upgraded Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. Raymond James lifted their target price on Southwest Airlines from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $26.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Susquehanna dropped their price target on Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.82.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of NYSE LUV opened at $29.30 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $30.62 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.54. The firm has a market cap of $17.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.15. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52 week low of $21.91 and a 52 week high of $39.53. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The airline reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.25. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 9.40% and a net margin of 1.91%. The company had revenue of $6.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.38) earnings per share. Southwest Airlines’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is presently 96.00%.

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.