Southwest Airlines’ (LUV) “Sell” Rating Reiterated at The Goldman Sachs Group

The Goldman Sachs Group reissued their sell rating on shares of Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) in a research note published on Friday morning, MarketBeat reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a $28.00 price objective on the airline’s stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. StockNews.com raised Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $24.00 to $32.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on Southwest Airlines from $19.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.78.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock opened at $32.60 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Southwest Airlines has a 52-week low of $23.58 and a 52-week high of $35.18. The company has a market capitalization of $19.55 billion, a P/E ratio of -465.71, a P/E/G ratio of 7.62 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a 50 day moving average of $30.29 and a 200 day moving average of $28.47.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.10. The firm 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%. Southwest Airlines’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.38 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines will post 0.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Southwest Airlines news, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total transaction of $35,912,933.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 59,912,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,787,192,261.40. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Rakesh Gangwal purchased 643,788 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was purchased at an average price of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. This trade represents a 21.73 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Southwest Airlines

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System grew its stake in Southwest Airlines by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 618,601 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $18,057,000 after acquiring an additional 17,873 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 15.0% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 493,954 shares of the airline’s stock worth $14,419,000 after purchasing an additional 64,284 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,569,773 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,972,362,000 after purchasing an additional 2,148,435 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $120,000. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 34.9% during the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 14,607 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $426,000 after buying an additional 3,775 shares during the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.