Captrust Financial Advisors Has $1.72 Million Holdings in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 27.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 58,161 shares of the airline’s stock after buying an additional 12,701 shares during the quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors’ holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $1,723,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LUV. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the second quarter worth $29,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the 2nd quarter worth $33,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the 3rd quarter worth $33,000. AM Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the 2nd quarter worth $37,000. Finally, GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC raised its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 35.4% in the 2nd quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 1,487 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 389 shares in the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Southwest Airlines Trading Down 1.9 %

LUV stock opened at $34.17 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.97. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52 week low of $23.58 and a 52 week high of $36.12. The company has a market capitalization of $20.49 billion, a PE ratio of -488.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.70 and a beta of 1.16. 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 issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The company’s revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.11%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -1,028.57%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on LUV. UBS Group restated a “sell” rating and set a $27.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.61.

Insider Transactions at Southwest Airlines

In other news, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total transaction of $35,912,933.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 59,912,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,787,192,261.40. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Rakesh Gangwal bought 643,788 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, 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 currently owned by company insiders.

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.