Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Holdings Trimmed by Kingsview Wealth Management LLC

Kingsview Wealth Management LLC lowered its holdings in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 5.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 24,238 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 1,399 shares during the period. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $718,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Studio Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Studio Investment Management LLC now owns 6,978 shares of the airline’s stock worth $207,000 after acquiring an additional 343 shares in the last quarter. Axiom Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 2.1% in the third quarter. Axiom Advisory LLC now owns 18,306 shares of the airline’s stock worth $507,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares in the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 8.4% during the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,918 shares of the airline’s stock worth $146,000 after purchasing an additional 383 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 0.7% during the third quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 57,976 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,718,000 after purchasing an additional 388 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC increased its stake in Southwest Airlines by 35.4% in the 2nd quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 1,487 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 389 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on LUV shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Barclays upped their target price on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.25.

Insider Transactions at Southwest Airlines

In other Southwest Airlines news, Director Rakesh Gangwal purchased 643,788 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were purchased at an average price of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 3,606,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. This represents a 21.73 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total transaction of $35,912,933.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 59,912,580 shares in the company, valued at $1,787,192,261.40. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Southwest Airlines Trading Up 1.3 %

Southwest Airlines stock opened at $32.36 on Thursday. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52 week low of $23.58 and a 52 week high of $35.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.41 billion, a PE ratio of -462.29, a PEG ratio of 7.58 and a beta of 1.15. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $30.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.75.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be given a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.22%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio is -1,028.57%.

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.