Southwest Airlines’ (LUV) Sell Rating Reaffirmed at UBS Group

UBS Group reaffirmed their sell rating on shares of Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) in a report released on Tuesday, Marketbeat reports. UBS Group currently has a $27.00 price target on the airline’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on LUV. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Monday, November 4th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $33.00 target price for the company. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. BNP Paribas upgraded Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.25.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of LUV opened at $32.36 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $19.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -462.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.56 and a beta of 1.15. Southwest Airlines has a fifty-two week low of $23.58 and a fifty-two week high of $35.18. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.10. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The company had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines will post 0.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 26th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.22%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio is currently -1,028.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southwest Airlines

In other news, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total value of $35,912,933.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 59,912,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,787,192,261.40. The trade was a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Rakesh Gangwal bought 643,788 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were purchased at an average price of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $108,117,203.78. The trade was a 21.73 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in LUV. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 46.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 30,082,719 shares of the airline’s stock worth $932,894,000 after purchasing an additional 9,504,201 shares during the last quarter. Sfmg LLC acquired a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,057,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 32.9% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 65,831 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $2,105,000 after buying an additional 16,293 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,482,000. Finally, TD Private Client Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 41.1% during the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 1,184 shares of the airline’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 345 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Southwest Airlines Company 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.