20,502 Shares in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Purchased by Roman Butler Fullerton & Co.

Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 20,502 shares of the airline’s stock, valued at approximately $617,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LUV. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Southwest Airlines by 91,675.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,296,139 shares of the airline’s stock worth $515,021,000 after purchasing an additional 15,279,472 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 39.7% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 21,991,802 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $715,615,000 after buying an additional 6,244,136 shares during the period. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH grew its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 106.5% in the 3rd quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 2,556,536 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $69,205,000 after buying an additional 1,318,361 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the 4th quarter valued at about $44,210,000. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,213,320 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $613,243,000 after buying an additional 1,269,782 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock traded up $0.31 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $29.09. 1,135,522 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,287,839. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. Southwest Airlines Co. has a twelve month low of $21.91 and a twelve month high of $39.53. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $30.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.46. The company has a market cap of $17.40 billion, a PE ratio of 38.37, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.15.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The airline reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.25. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 9.40% and a net margin of 1.91%. The company had revenue of $6.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.38) EPS. Southwest Airlines’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.48%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio is presently 96.00%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the company. Argus upgraded Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Barclays lowered their price target on Southwest Airlines from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 5th. StockNews.com cut Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $26.00 to $32.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.82.

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.