Hartford Investment Management Co. Sells 759 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Hartford Investment Management Co. cut its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 37,443 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 759 shares during the period. Hartford Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $1,109,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LUV. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 48,422 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,435,000 after purchasing an additional 697 shares in the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Southwest Airlines during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $75,000. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 15.7% in the third quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 12,497 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $370,000 after buying an additional 1,700 shares in the last quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 38.7% in the third quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. now owns 51,320 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,521,000 after buying an additional 14,330 shares during the period. Finally, New Century Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines during the third quarter worth $242,000. 80.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on LUV. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $29.00 target price (down previously from $32.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Barclays upped their price target on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.14.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of NYSE LUV opened at $29.43 on Friday. Southwest Airlines Co. has a twelve month low of $21.91 and a twelve month high of $35.18. The company has a market cap of $17.61 billion, a PE ratio of 46.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.63 and a beta of 1.17. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $29.33 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 5.92% and a net margin of 0.41%. The business had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.38 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.56 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is 114.29%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Rakesh Gangwal acquired 643,788 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,606,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.