Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Shares Purchased by Parkside Financial Bank & Trust

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 47.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,452 shares of the airline’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,106 shares during the quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $100,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. U S Global Investors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 24.9% during 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 period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,866,933 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $131,748,000 after purchasing an additional 32,089 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,077,158 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $83,299,000 after purchasing an additional 23,715 shares in the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 2,606,555 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $75,277,000 after purchasing an additional 50,019 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 418,624 shares in the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LUV has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Southwest Airlines from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $26.00 to $32.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $20.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine 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 an average price target of $31.76.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of LUV stock opened at $27.26 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $30.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.53. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. The firm has a market cap of $16.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.34, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.15. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 12 month low of $21.91 and a 12 month high of $39.53.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The airline reported ($0.36) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.34) by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $6.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.42 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 9.40% and a net margin of 1.91%. Southwest Airlines’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.27) earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were given a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.64%. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is 96.00%.

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.