Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Raised to “Hold” at Jefferies Financial Group

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) was upgraded by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has a $32.00 price objective on the airline’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $24.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 5.40% from the company’s previous close.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. TD Cowen upped their target price on Southwest Airlines from $19.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $29.00 price target (down from $32.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.02.

Southwest Airlines Trading Down 0.9 %

Southwest Airlines stock opened at $30.36 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $28.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $27.97. The stock has a market cap of $18.19 billion, a PE ratio of 233.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.17 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.90. Southwest Airlines has a one year low of $21.91 and a one year high of $35.18.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The airline reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $7.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.32 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 5.92% and a net margin of 0.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.09 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines will post 0.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southwest Airlines

In other Southwest Airlines news, Director Rakesh Gangwal acquired 643,788 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $29.98 per share, with a total value of $19,300,764.24. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at $108,117,203.78. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of LUV. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Southwest Airlines by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,569,773 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,972,362,000 after buying an additional 2,148,435 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 14.9% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 61,422,187 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,792,914,000 after acquiring an additional 7,946,199 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 21.6% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,828,166 shares of the airline’s stock worth $166,742,000 after acquiring an additional 1,034,496 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the 2nd quarter valued at $48,551,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 629.5% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,590,298 shares of the airline’s stock worth $45,498,000 after purchasing an additional 1,372,305 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

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.