Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Announces Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.10 EPS

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The airline reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10, RTT News reports. The company had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.77 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 5.92% and a net margin of 0.41%. Southwest Airlines’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.38 EPS.

Southwest Airlines Trading Up 1.4 %

NYSE:LUV opened at $29.43 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $17.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.71, a PEG ratio of 11.63 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.11. Southwest Airlines has a 12-month low of $21.91 and a 12-month high of $35.18.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is currently 114.29%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Rakesh Gangwal bought 643,788 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were acquired at an average price of $29.98 per share, with a total value of $19,300,764.24. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on LUV. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays lifted their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.14.

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.