Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Takes Position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 15,198 shares of the airline’s stock, valued at approximately $439,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of LUV. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 91,675.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,296,139 shares of the airline’s stock worth $515,021,000 after buying an additional 15,279,472 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 39.7% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 21,991,802 shares of the airline’s stock worth $715,615,000 after buying an additional 6,244,136 shares during the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH boosted its holdings 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 worth $69,205,000 after buying an additional 1,318,361 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the 4th quarter worth about $44,210,000. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,213,320 shares of the airline’s stock worth $613,243,000 after buying an additional 1,269,782 shares during the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Argus upgraded Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $26.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. 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 note on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI reissued 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 given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.82.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 2.6 %

LUV stock opened at $28.78 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $17.22 billion, a PE ratio of 38.37, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.14. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $30.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.46. Southwest Airlines Co. has a one year low of $21.91 and a one year high of $39.53.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The airline reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $6.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.75 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 9.40% and a net margin of 1.91%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.38) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were given a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. 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.