Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Shares Purchased by Blair William & Co. IL

Posted by Defense World Staff on Sep 8th, 2023

Blair William & Co. IL boosted its stake in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV – Free Report) by 33.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 31,079 shares of the airline’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,780 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $1,011,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LUV. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 91,675.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,296,139 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $515,021,000 after purchasing an additional 15,279,472 shares during the last quarter. Provident Trust Co. grew its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 161.8% in the first quarter. Provident Trust Co. now owns 6,693,394 shares of the airline’s stock worth $217,803,000 after acquiring an additional 4,136,264 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the first quarter worth $93,082,000. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the first quarter worth $84,213,000. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the first quarter worth $43,600,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.22% of the company’s stock.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:LUV opened at $29.43 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $34.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.46. Southwest Airlines Co. has a one year low of $28.40 and a one year high of $40.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.44, a PEG ratio of 0.40 and a beta of 1.17.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The airline reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.01. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 2.31% and a return on equity of 5.81%. The business had revenue of $7.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.98 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.30 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 2.1 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 6th will be issued a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 5th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is 81.82%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $34.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. Bank of America cut shares of Southwest Airlines from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $45.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 27th. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $25.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, August 3rd. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $40.00 to $37.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $39.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $37.17.

View Our Latest Report on LUV

About Southwest Airlines

(Free Report)

Southwest Airlines Co operates as a passenger airline company that provide scheduled air transportation services in the United States and near-international markets. As of December 31, 2022, the company operated a total fleet of 770 Boeing 737 aircrafts; 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.