Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.02 EPS

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV - Get Free Report) released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The airline reported ($0.36) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.34) by ($0.02), RTT News reports. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 9.40% and a net margin of 1.91%. The company had revenue of $6.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.42 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.27) EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis.

Southwest Airlines Trading Down 7.0 %

Shares of NYSE LUV traded down $2.05 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $27.26. 36,925,783 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,690,704. The company's 50-day moving average is $30.48 and its 200-day moving average is $28.53. Southwest Airlines has a 52-week low of $21.91 and a 52-week high of $39.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.34, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.14.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. Southwest Airlines's dividend payout ratio is presently 96.00%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Evercore ISI restated an "inline" rating and issued a $35.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Southwest Airlines from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. StockNews.com downgraded Southwest Airlines from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on Southwest Airlines from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $31.82.

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.