Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.18 on July 9th

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, May 13th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.18 per share by the airline on Wednesday, July 9th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 18th.

Southwest Airlines has a dividend payout ratio of 29.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Southwest Airlines to earn $2.36 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 30.5%.

Southwest Airlines Trading Up 0.4%

NYSE:LUV opened at $31.41 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $17.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.18. Southwest Airlines has a twelve month low of $23.58 and a twelve month high of $36.12. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $29.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $31.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The airline reported ($0.13) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.18) by $0.05. The business had revenue of $6.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.47 billion. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.69% and a return on equity of 5.77%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.36) earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Southwest Airlines will post 1.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on LUV shares. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $36.00 to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $31.00 price target (down from $33.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target (down previously from $42.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $23.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $32.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.59.

Insider Transactions at Southwest Airlines

In other news, Director David P. Hess acquired 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 28th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $26.52 per share, for a total transaction of $198,900.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 23,156 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $614,097.12. This represents a 47.90% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Gregg A. Saretsky bought 3,670 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 30th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $27.29 per share, with a total value of $100,154.30. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 14,881 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $406,102.49. This represents a 32.74% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders purchased 16,670 shares of company stock worth $464,944. 0.79% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.