Raymond James Reaffirms “Outperform” Rating for Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV)

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reissued by equities researchers at Raymond James in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $30.00 target price on the airline’s stock, down from their prior target price of $33.00. Raymond James’ target price points to a potential upside of 10.74% from the company’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $28.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Argus raised Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. Finally, Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “inline” rating and issued a $35.00 target price on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.18.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of LUV traded down $0.17 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $27.09. 10,253,345 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,707,348. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $30.48 and a 200-day moving average of $28.53. Southwest Airlines has a one year low of $21.91 and a one year high of $39.53. The firm has a market cap of $16.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.12, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.07.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The airline reported ($0.36) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.34) by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $6.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.42 billion. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.91% and a return on equity of 9.40%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.27) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Southwest Airlines will post 1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Southwest Airlines

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LUV. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 21.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,475,988 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,544,387,000 after purchasing an additional 9,444,279 shares in the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH raised its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 1,318,361 shares in the last quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. raised its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Southwest Airlines in the fourth quarter worth $29,789,000. Finally, Nuance Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines during the fourth quarter valued at $24,404,000. Institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

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.