Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Stake Boosted by Farther Finance Advisors LLC

Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 90.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,066 shares of the airline’s stock after buying an additional 1,932 shares during the quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $120,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,569,773 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,972,362,000 after buying an additional 2,148,435 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Southwest Airlines by 14.9% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 61,422,187 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,792,914,000 after purchasing an additional 7,946,199 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Southwest Airlines by 21.6% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,828,166 shares of the airline’s stock worth $166,742,000 after purchasing an additional 1,034,496 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the second quarter worth approximately $48,551,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its position in Southwest Airlines by 629.5% in the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,590,298 shares of the airline’s stock worth $45,498,000 after purchasing an additional 1,372,305 shares during the period. 80.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Evercore ISI upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. BNP Paribas upgraded Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.96.

Insider Transactions at Southwest Airlines

In related news, Director Rakesh Gangwal bought 643,788 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at $108,117,203.78. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total value of $35,912,933.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 59,912,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,787,192,261.40. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Rakesh Gangwal purchased 643,788 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $108,117,203.78. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 2.7 %

LUV opened at $32.65 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $19.58 billion, a PE ratio of -466.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.90 and a beta of 1.15. The business has a 50-day moving average of $30.00 and a 200-day moving average of $28.26. Southwest Airlines Co. has a fifty-two week low of $22.58 and a fifty-two week high of $35.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.77 billion. Southwest Airlines had a negative net margin of 0.06% and a positive return on equity of 4.56%. Southwest Airlines’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.38 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines 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.