Prudential Financial Inc. Acquires 6,272 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. $LUV

Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 1.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 334,294 shares of the airline’s stock after buying an additional 6,272 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $10,844,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new stake in Southwest Airlines during the first quarter worth about $56,244,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 1st quarter worth approximately $50,433,000. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its stake in shares of 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. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $24,330,000. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. bought a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the first quarter valued at $18,163,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on LUV. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 24th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, October 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Tuesday. Four equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $33.80.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

NYSE LUV opened at $35.07 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $18.13 billion, a PE ratio of 53.95, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 0.49. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $32.44 and a 200-day moving average of $32.51. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52-week low of $23.82 and a 52-week high of $37.96.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The airline reported ($0.38) earnings per share for the quarter. The company 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%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.55 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 16th. Investors of record on Friday, December 26th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 26th. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 110.77%.

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.