UBS Group Reaffirms Sell Rating for Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV)

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV)‘s stock had its “sell” rating reiterated by UBS Group in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a $27.00 price target on the airline’s stock. UBS Group’s target price would suggest a potential downside of 16.56% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Citigroup raised their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. BNP Paribas raised Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $19.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.25.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 1.3 %

LUV opened at $32.36 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $30.80 and a 200-day moving average of $28.75. The company has a market capitalization of $19.41 billion, a P/E ratio of -462.29, a P/E/G ratio of 7.58 and a beta of 1.15. Southwest Airlines has a fifty-two week low of $23.58 and a fifty-two week high of $35.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.10. Southwest Airlines had a negative net margin of 0.06% and a positive return on equity of 4.56%. The business had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.38 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Southwest Airlines will post 0.75 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Rakesh Gangwal purchased 643,788 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was bought at an average price of $29.98 per share, with a total value of $19,300,764.24. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. This represents a 21.73 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 59,912,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,787,192,261.40. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Southwest Airlines

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 46.2% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 30,082,719 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $932,894,000 after buying an additional 9,504,201 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 21.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,828,166 shares of the airline’s stock worth $166,742,000 after acquiring an additional 1,034,496 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 608.5% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 3,623,333 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $107,359,000 after purchasing an additional 3,111,946 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,377,660 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $100,080,000 after purchasing an additional 46,110 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its stake in Southwest Airlines by 6,414.5% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 3,006,000 shares of the airline’s stock worth $89,068,000 after purchasing an additional 2,959,857 shares during the period. 80.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.