Oak Thistle LLC Sells 10,609 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Oak Thistle LLC lowered its position in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 57.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,739 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 10,609 shares during the quarter. Oak Thistle LLC’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $260,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 9,504,201 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 21.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,828,166 shares of the airline’s stock worth $166,742,000 after buying an additional 1,034,496 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 608.5% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 3,623,333 shares of the airline’s stock worth $107,359,000 after buying an additional 3,111,946 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 1.4% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,377,660 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $100,080,000 after buying an additional 46,110 shares during the period. Finally, Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 6,414.5% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 3,006,000 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $89,068,000 after acquiring an additional 2,959,857 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LUV has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $29.50 price target (down previously from $31.50) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $31.00 target price (down previously from $33.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday. Susquehanna boosted their target price on Southwest Airlines from $33.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $42.00 price target on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Southwest Airlines currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.31.

Insider Activity

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

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE:LUV opened at $32.19 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $33.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.10. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52-week low of $23.58 and a 52-week high of $36.12. The company has a market cap of $19.31 billion, a PE ratio of -459.90, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.77 billion. Southwest Airlines had a negative net margin of 0.06% and a positive return on equity of 4.56%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.38 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

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

Southwest Airlines 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.