Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE:LUV)’s share price gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $31.47, but opened at $33.25. Southwest Airlines shares last traded at $35.75, with a volume of 21,236,451 shares changing hands.
LUV has been the subject of several research reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $40.00 to $50.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Susquehanna Bancshares raised Southwest Airlines from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and set a $41.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. ValuEngine raised Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Bank of America upgraded Southwest Airlines from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $48.00 to $43.00 in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, Credit Suisse Group upgraded Southwest Airlines from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $35.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Friday, June 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. The company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $49.81.
The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The company’s fifty day moving average is $34.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $40.68. The stock has a market cap of $18.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.42 and a beta of 1.25.
Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The airline reported ($0.15) EPS for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of ($0.48) by $0.33. The business had revenue of $4.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.55 billion. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 8.46% and a return on equity of 18.92%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.70 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Southwest Airlines Co will post -4.45 EPS for the current year.
In other news, EVP Andrew M. Watterson sold 8,275 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction on Friday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.85, for a total transaction of $263,558.75. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 52,911 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,685,215.35. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.
Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the fourth quarter valued at about $125,316,000. IBM Retirement Fund grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 60.1% during the first quarter. IBM Retirement Fund now owns 11,099 shares of the airline’s stock worth $395,000 after buying an additional 4,167 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 5.3% during the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 38,978 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,388,000 after buying an additional 1,966 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 13.5% during the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 90,369 shares of the airline’s stock worth $3,218,000 after buying an additional 10,746 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 0.9% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 235,726 shares of the airline’s stock worth $8,395,000 after buying an additional 2,210 shares during the period. 82.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
About Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV)
Southwest Airlines Co operates a passenger airline that provides scheduled air transportation services in the United States and near-international markets. As of December 31, 2018, the company operated a total of 750 Boeing 737 aircraft; and served 99 destinations in 40 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as 10 near-international countries, including Mexico, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Belize, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos.
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