Mattson Financial Services LLC Acquires New Position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Mattson Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 45,630 shares of the airline’s stock, valued at approximately $1,305,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of LUV. State of Alaska Department of Revenue lifted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 64,743 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,889,000 after buying an additional 370 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management grew its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 5.0% during the 1st quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 8,055 shares of the airline’s stock worth $235,000 after acquiring an additional 382 shares in the last quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC increased its position in Southwest Airlines by 35.4% during the 2nd quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 1,487 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 389 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund raised its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 51,395 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,470,000 after purchasing an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 42.6% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,412 shares of the airline’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 422 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $29.00 to $28.25 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Evercore ISI upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $29.00.

Insider Activity at Southwest Airlines

In other Southwest Airlines news, Director Rakesh Gangwal bought 643,788 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,606,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $108,117,203.78. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

NYSE:LUV opened at $29.57 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.70 billion, a PE ratio of 46.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 26.83 and a beta of 1.17. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52 week low of $21.91 and a 52 week high of $35.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $27.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $27.89.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The airline reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $7.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.32 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 5.92% and a net margin of 0.41%. The business’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.09 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.43%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 114.29%.

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.