Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. Purchases Shares of 4,374 Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 4,374 shares of the airline’s stock, valued at approximately $126,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of LUV. IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 11.9% in the third quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 26,568 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $719,000 after acquiring an additional 2,828 shares in the last quarter. Advisor Partners II LLC lifted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Advisor Partners II LLC now owns 11,540 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $312,000 after acquiring an additional 1,160 shares during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co grew its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 26.8% during the 3rd quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 12,216 shares of the airline’s stock worth $331,000 after purchasing an additional 2,580 shares in the last quarter. Gradient Investments LLC raised its stake in Southwest Airlines by 6.4% in the third quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 274,594 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $7,433,000 after purchasing an additional 16,599 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ING Groep NV bought a new stake in Southwest Airlines during the third quarter worth about $75,000. Institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on LUV shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Barclays reduced their target price on Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 26th. UBS Group assumed coverage on Southwest Airlines in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $36.00 price target for the company. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $26.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.24.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

LUV stock opened at $27.00 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.86, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $29.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $28.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.09. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52-week low of $21.91 and a 52-week high of $39.53.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The airline reported ($0.36) 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.27) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.07 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines 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.