Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Stock Rating Upgraded by Jefferies Financial Group

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) was upgraded by stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $32.00 target price on the airline’s stock, up from their previous target price of $24.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 4.34% from the company’s current price.

LUV has been the subject of several other reports. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Evercore ISI upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Southwest Airlines has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.71.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of NYSE LUV opened at $30.67 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.90. Southwest Airlines has a one year low of $21.91 and a one year high of $35.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.68, a PEG ratio of 14.88 and a beta of 1.17. The company’s fifty day moving average is $28.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $27.94.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The airline reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $7.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.32 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 5.92% and a net margin of 0.41%. The company’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.09 EPS. Analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines will post 0.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southwest Airlines

In related news, Director Rakesh Gangwal purchased 643,788 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at $108,117,203.78. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Southwest Airlines

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Southwest Airlines during the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. CVA Family Office LLC increased its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 179.5% in the second quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 1,034 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 664 shares during the last quarter. Pineridge Advisors LLC bought a new position in Southwest Airlines during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Mather Group LLC. bought a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

About Southwest Airlines

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.