Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Price Target Raised to $40.00 at Raymond James

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) had its price objective hoisted by investment analysts at Raymond James from $36.00 to $40.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the airline’s stock. Raymond James’ target price indicates a potential upside of 17.51% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on LUV. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Southwest Airlines has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.96.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

LUV stock opened at $34.04 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $32.28 and a 200 day moving average of $29.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The company has a market cap of $20.42 billion, a P/E ratio of -486.29, a PEG ratio of 7.38 and a beta of 1.16. Southwest Airlines has a 1 year low of $23.58 and a 1 year high of $36.12.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.77 billion. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines will post 0.78 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total value of $35,912,933.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 59,912,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,787,192,261.40. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.40, for a total value of $132,405.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 89,376 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,074,534.40. This represents a 4.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of LUV. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 689,199 shares of the airline’s stock worth $20,421,000 after purchasing an additional 21,805 shares during the period. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. lifted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 23.6% during the 3rd quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 99,407 shares of the airline’s stock worth $2,945,000 after buying an additional 19,000 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Southwest Airlines by 46.2% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 30,082,719 shares of the airline’s stock worth $932,894,000 after buying an additional 9,504,201 shares during the last quarter. Sfmg LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines during the third quarter worth about $1,057,000. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its stake in Southwest Airlines by 32.9% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 65,831 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $2,105,000 after buying an additional 16,293 shares during the period. 80.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.