Southwest Airlines Co. $LUV Shares Sold by PNC Financial Services Group Inc.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lowered its position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 3.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 74,027 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 2,692 shares during the quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $2,401,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of LUV. Allworth Financial LP raised its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 9.3% in the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 31,307 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,016,000 after purchasing an additional 2,659 shares in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 6.5% in the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 6,400 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $208,000 after buying an additional 393 shares during the last quarter. Midwest Trust Co acquired a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the second quarter valued at $490,000. RWA Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the second quarter valued at $1,652,000. Finally, Oldfield Partners LLP lifted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Oldfield Partners LLP now owns 1,011,000 shares of the airline’s stock worth $32,797,000 after buying an additional 4,200 shares during the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LUV has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 24th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines to a “moderate sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 25th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $33.73.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

LUV stock opened at $32.00 on Wednesday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $16.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.24, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $32.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.39. Southwest Airlines Co. has a twelve month low of $23.82 and a twelve month high of $37.96.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The airline reported ($0.38) EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $6.17 billion during the quarter. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.38% and a return on equity of 6.39%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.55 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, July 23rd that allows the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the airline to repurchase up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.