Raymond James Reaffirms “Outperform” Rating for Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV)

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reissued by equities research analysts at Raymond James in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $30.00 target price on the airline’s stock, down from their previous target price of $33.00. Raymond James’ target price would suggest a potential upside of 10.74% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other analysts also recently commented on the stock. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $20.00 to $28.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $26.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.18.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:LUV traded down $0.17 during trading on Friday, reaching $27.09. The company had a trading volume of 10,253,345 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,707,348. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $30.48 and its 200 day moving average is $28.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.21 billion, a PE ratio of 36.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.15. Southwest Airlines has a twelve month low of $21.91 and a twelve 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 (NYSE:LUV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The airline reported ($0.36) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.34) by ($0.02). Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.91% and a return on equity of 9.40%. The firm had revenue of $6.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.42 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.27) EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LUV. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 21.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,475,988 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,544,387,000 after purchasing an additional 9,444,279 shares during the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH raised its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,318,361 shares during the period. U S Global Investors Inc. raised its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 24.9% in the 4th quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. now owns 6,210,347 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $179,355,000 after acquiring an additional 1,238,468 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,789,000. Finally, Nuance Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $24,404,000. Institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

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.