Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Issues Earnings Results

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) posted its earnings results on Thursday. The airline reported ($0.36) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.34) by ($0.02), RTT News reports. The company had revenue of $6.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.42 billion. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.91% and a return on equity of 9.40%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.27) earnings per share.

Southwest Airlines Trading Down 7.9 %

Shares of NYSE LUV traded down $2.31 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $26.99. 17,051,331 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,430,987. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $30.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.54. The firm has a market cap of $16.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.15. Southwest Airlines has a 12-month low of $21.91 and a 12-month high of $39.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.14.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.67%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 96.00%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LUV has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $26.00 to $32.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Susquehanna lowered their price target on Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $28.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average 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.