Board of the Pension Protection Fund Takes $101,000 Position in Southwest Airlines Co. $LUV

Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 3,100 shares of the airline’s stock, valued at approximately $101,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the first quarter worth about $56,244,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines during the first quarter worth $50,433,000. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 49,688,308 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,668,533,000 after purchasing an additional 788,255 shares in the last quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. bought a new position in Southwest Airlines during the 1st quarter worth about $18,163,000. Finally, Nearwater Capital Markets Ltd bought a new position in Southwest Airlines during the 1st quarter worth about $13,432,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on LUV shares. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Wednesday. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Southwest Airlines from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $33.38.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of LUV opened at $31.35 on Friday. Southwest Airlines Co. has a one year low of $23.82 and a one year high of $37.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.49. The company has a market cap of $16.46 billion, a PE ratio of 47.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.21. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $31.75 and a 200-day moving average of $31.44.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The airline reported ($0.38) EPS for the quarter. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 6.27% and a net margin of 1.43%.The business had revenue of $6.17 billion for the quarter. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 24th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 3rd. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is currently 109.09%.

Southwest Airlines announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, July 23rd that authorizes the company to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the airline to reacquire up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Southwest Airlines

In related news, Director Sarah Feinberg acquired 1,500 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $30.01 per share, with a total value of $45,015.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 14,229 shares in the company, valued at $427,012.29. This trade represents a 11.78% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Gregg A. Saretsky acquired 3,345 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $30.03 per share, with a total value of $100,450.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 23,644 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $710,029.32. This trade represents a 16.48% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

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.