10,245 Shares in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Purchased by Blueshift Asset Management LLC

Key Points

• Blueshift Asset Management LLC has acquired 10,245 shares of Southwest Airlines Co. worth approximately $344,000 in the first quarter.
• Southwest Airlines recently posted a quarterly earnings report revealing earnings per share (EPS) of $0.43, missing estimates, and declared a share repurchase plan of $2.00 billion.
• Analysts have mixed sentiments on the stock; several have issued downgrades with a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $32.75.

Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 10,245 shares of the airline's stock, valued at approximately $344,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Quent Capital LLC grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 78.6% during the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 1,472 shares of the airline's stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 648 shares in the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 370.3% during the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 1,919 shares of the airline's stock valued at $65,000 after purchasing an additional 1,511 shares in the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 22.1% during the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 2,161 shares of the airline's stock valued at $73,000 after purchasing an additional 391 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 35.7% during the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,590 shares of the airline's stock valued at $87,000 after purchasing an additional 681 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 23.3% in the first quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the airline's stock worth $90,000 after acquiring an additional 503 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.82% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on LUV shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Southwest Airlines from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $23.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $24.00 to $33.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $40.00 to $34.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 25th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $33.06.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:LUV traded down $0.10 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $29.66. 521,871 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,994,124. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $33.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $31.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.57 billion, a PE ratio of 45.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.26. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 12 month low of $23.82 and a 12 month high of $37.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 0.56.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The airline reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $7.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.30 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 6.27% and a net margin of 1.43%. Southwest Airlines's revenue was down 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.58 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 24th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 3rd. Southwest Airlines's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 109.09%.

Southwest Airlines declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, July 23rd that allows the company to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the airline to repurchase up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.