Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Shares Sold by DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale reduced its position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV - Free Report) by 74.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 56,705 shares of the airline's stock after selling 167,541 shares during the quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale's holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $1,658,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of LUV. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 91,675.0% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,296,139 shares of the airline's stock worth $515,021,000 after purchasing an additional 15,279,472 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 39.7% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 21,991,802 shares of the airline's stock worth $715,615,000 after buying an additional 6,244,136 shares in the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lifted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 106.5% in the third quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 2,556,536 shares of the airline's stock worth $69,205,000 after buying an additional 1,318,361 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the fourth quarter worth $44,210,000. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,213,320 shares of the airline's stock worth $613,243,000 after buying an additional 1,269,782 shares in the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Southwest Airlines Trading Down 3.4 %

LUV stock traded down $0.98 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $27.54. 11,545,818 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,522,435. 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 Co. has a one year low of $21.91 and a one year high of $39.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.48 billion, a PE ratio of 36.72, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.15. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $31.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.45.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The airline reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $6.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.75 billion. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.91% and a return on equity of 9.40%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.38) earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.52 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.61%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. Southwest Airlines's payout ratio is presently 96.00%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LUV has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI reissued an "inline" rating and issued a $35.00 target price on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 5th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating and upped their price target for the company from $20.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an "underperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and upped their price target for the company from $26.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Friday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $31.82.

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.