Integrated Investment Consultants LLC Purchases Shares of 8,262 Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Integrated Investment Consultants LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 8,262 shares of the airline’s stock, valued at approximately $245,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Southwest Airlines during the second quarter worth $29,000. CVA Family Office LLC boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 179.5% during the 2nd quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 1,034 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 664 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the third quarter valued at about $33,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new position in Southwest Airlines in the second quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, AM Squared Ltd bought a new position in Southwest Airlines during the second quarter worth about $37,000. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on LUV. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. StockNews.com upgraded Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $19.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.78.

Southwest Airlines Trading Up 0.6 %

LUV stock opened at $31.97 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.88. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $30.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.63. Southwest Airlines Co. has a fifty-two week low of $23.58 and a fifty-two week high of $35.18.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.77 billion. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.38 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 26th. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio is -1,028.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Rakesh Gangwal bought 643,788 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was bought at an average cost of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 3,606,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. This trade represents 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 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.