Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Price Target Lowered to $26.00 at Barclays

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) had its price target lowered by Barclays from $30.00 to $26.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the airline’s stock.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on the company. Argus raised Southwest Airlines from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Raymond James raised their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised Southwest Airlines from an underperform rating to a market perform rating and raised their price objective for the company from $26.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $31.18.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

LUV opened at $27.04 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $16.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.15. Southwest Airlines has a 52-week low of $21.91 and a 52-week high of $39.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.09. The business’s fifty day moving average is $30.34 and its 200-day moving average is $28.53.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The airline reported ($0.36) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.34) by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $6.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.42 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 8.91% and a net margin of 1.59%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.27) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Southwest Airlines will post 1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.66%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 114.29%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Southwest Airlines

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LUV. Czech National Bank raised its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 47.8% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 104,104 shares of the airline’s stock worth $2,818,000 after acquiring an additional 33,660 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 2.6% during the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 91,040 shares of the airline’s stock worth $2,464,000 after acquiring an additional 2,281 shares during the last quarter. Country Club Bank GFN raised its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 4.0% during the third quarter. Country Club Bank GFN now owns 109,133 shares of the airline’s stock worth $2,971,000 after acquiring an additional 4,207 shares during the last quarter. FAS Wealth Partners Inc. raised its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 4.7% during the third quarter. FAS Wealth Partners Inc. now owns 38,166 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,033,000 after acquiring an additional 1,705 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Xponance Inc. raised its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 3.4% during the third quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 77,883 shares of the airline’s stock worth $2,108,000 after acquiring an additional 2,558 shares during the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.