Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Shares Down 4.5% – Time to Sell?

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) shares fell 4.5% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $31.31 and last traded at $31.33. 2,290,800 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 62% from the average session volume of 5,982,328 shares. The stock had previously closed at $32.80.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LUV has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group increased their price target on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $42.00 target price on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $32.31.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

The business has a 50 day moving average price of $33.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a market cap of $19.31 billion, a P/E ratio of -459.90, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.14.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.10. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The business had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.38 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.81 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 26th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 26th. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -1,028.57%.

Insider Transactions at Southwest Airlines

In related news, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total transaction of $35,912,933.60. Following the sale, the insider now owns 59,912,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,787,192,261.40. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.40, for a total value of $132,405.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 89,376 shares in the company, valued at $3,074,534.40. This trade represents a 4.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Southwest Airlines

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 3.1% in the second quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 55,730 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,606,000 after purchasing an additional 1,682 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Southwest Airlines by 21.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,828,166 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $166,742,000 after buying an additional 1,034,496 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank raised its stake in Southwest Airlines by 17.0% in the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 193,732 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $5,543,000 after buying an additional 28,172 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its stake in Southwest Airlines by 22.1% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 43,238 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,222,000 after buying an additional 7,814 shares during the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 224.5% during the second quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 31,180 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $892,000 after acquiring an additional 21,571 shares in the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.