Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.07 EPS

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The airline reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.07, RTT News reports. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 8.91% and a net margin of 1.59%. The firm had revenue of $7.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.32 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.09 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 5.6 %

Shares of LUV stock opened at $28.10 on Friday. Southwest Airlines has a twelve month low of $21.91 and a twelve month high of $36.37. The stock has a market cap of $16.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.15. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $27.82 and a 200 day moving average of $29.21. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 19th were paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 18th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.56%. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is 114.29%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on LUV shares. TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $19.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 8th. HSBC assumed coverage on Southwest Airlines in a report on Monday, May 13th. They set a “hold” rating and a $27.80 price objective for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their target price on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $26.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Finally, Susquehanna decreased their price target on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.04.

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.