Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Posts Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.02 EPS

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The airline reported ($0.36) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.34) by ($0.02), RTT News reports. The business had revenue of $6.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.42 billion. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.91% and a return on equity of 9.40%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.27) EPS.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of LUV opened at $27.26 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $30.48 and a 200 day moving average of $28.53. The company has a market capitalization of $16.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.34, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.15. Southwest Airlines has a 12 month low of $21.91 and a 12 month high of $39.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were given a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.64%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is 96.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $26.00 to $32.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Susquehanna decreased their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.82.

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.