Southwest Airlines Co. $LUV Holdings Cut by Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd.

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 73.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,645 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 43,568 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $508,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of LUV. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines during the second quarter worth $31,000. Pandora Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in Southwest Airlines in the 1st quarter worth about $34,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 81.4% during the 2nd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,056 shares of the airline’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 474 shares in the last quarter. Cheviot Value Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 1st quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 2nd quarter valued at about $42,000. 80.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LUV has been the topic of several recent research reports. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $33.80.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

NYSE:LUV opened at $32.81 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.97 billion, a PE ratio of 50.48, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.23. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 1 year low of $23.82 and a 1 year high of $37.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $32.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.42.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The airline reported ($0.38) earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $6.17 billion for the quarter. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 6.39% and a net margin of 1.38%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.55 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 26th will be issued a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 26th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.77%.

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.