South Dakota Investment Council Sells 8,777 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

South Dakota Investment Council trimmed its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 433,693 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 8,777 shares during the quarter. South Dakota Investment Council owned about 0.07% of Southwest Airlines worth $12,525,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 106.5% in the third 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. boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 24.9% in the fourth 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. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the third quarter valued at about $13,193,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 34.9% in the third quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 1,619,499 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $43,840,000 after acquiring an additional 418,624 shares during the period. Finally, CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp bought a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the fourth quarter valued at about $10,277,000. 80.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LUV has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Susquehanna cut their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 5th. StockNews.com cut shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $28.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.82.

Southwest Airlines Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock traded down $0.27 on Tuesday, hitting $29.46. The stock had a trading volume of 7,001,038 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,316,646. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $30.71 and a 200 day moving average of $28.53. Southwest Airlines Co. 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. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.28, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.15.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The airline reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.25. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 9.40% and a net margin of 1.91%. The company had revenue of $6.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.75 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.38) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is presently 96.00%.

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.