Lee Danner & Bass Inc. Trims Stake in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Lee Danner & Bass Inc. cut its position in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 13.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 37,241 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 5,585 shares during the period. Lee Danner & Bass Inc.’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $1,076,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 106.5% in the 3rd quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 2,556,536 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $69,205,000 after acquiring an additional 1,318,361 shares during the last quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 24.9% in the fourth quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. now owns 6,210,347 shares of the airline’s stock worth $179,355,000 after purchasing an additional 1,238,468 shares during the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the third quarter worth about $13,193,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 34.9% during the 3rd quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 1,619,499 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $43,840,000 after buying an additional 418,624 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp bought a new stake in Southwest Airlines during the 4th quarter valued at about $10,277,000. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $20.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $28.00 to $42.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. 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 report on Friday, January 26th. UBS Group assumed coverage on Southwest Airlines in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $36.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southwest Airlines presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.82.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of LUV opened at $29.73 on Tuesday. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 12 month low of $21.91 and a 12 month high of $39.53. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $30.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $28.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. The firm has a market cap of $17.79 billion, a PE ratio of 39.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.15.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The airline reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.25. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 9.40% and a net margin of 1.91%. The business had revenue of $6.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.75 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.38) earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.42%. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is 96.00%.

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.