Southwest Airlines’ (LUV) “Sell” Rating Reaffirmed at UBS Group

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV)‘s stock had its “sell” rating reiterated by equities researchers at UBS Group in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. They presently have a $27.00 price objective on the airline’s stock. UBS Group’s target price suggests a potential downside of 16.56% from the company’s current price.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on Southwest Airlines from $19.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.25.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of NYSE LUV opened at $32.36 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $30.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.75. The firm 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 1-year low of $23.58 and a 1-year high of $35.18.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Rakesh Gangwal purchased 643,788 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were purchased at an average price of $29.98 per share, with a total value of $19,300,764.24. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,606,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. This represents a 21.73 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 59,912,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,787,192,261.40. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Southwest Airlines

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 46.2% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 30,082,719 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $932,894,000 after acquiring an additional 9,504,201 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 608.5% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 6,414.5% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 3,006,000 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $89,068,000 after purchasing an additional 2,959,857 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new stake in Southwest Airlines during the 2nd quarter worth about $48,551,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 629.5% in the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,590,298 shares of the airline’s stock worth $45,498,000 after purchasing an additional 1,372,305 shares during the period. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.