Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Stock Holdings Trimmed by Covestor Ltd

Covestor Ltd reduced its position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 35.3% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,933 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 1,055 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $57,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines during the second quarter valued at approximately $29,000. CVA Family Office LLC grew its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 179.5% during the second quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 1,034 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 664 shares during the last quarter. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines during the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. AM Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines during the second quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Finally, Bank & Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines during the second quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 80.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

LUV opened at $32.42 on Friday. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 1-year low of $23.58 and a 1-year high of $35.18. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $30.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.36. The company has a market capitalization of $19.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -463.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.49 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The company had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.38 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Rakesh Gangwal bought 643,788 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were bought at an average cost of $29.98 per share, with a total value of $19,300,764.24. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at $108,117,203.78. This trade represents a 21.73 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total transaction of $35,912,933.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 59,912,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,787,192,261.40. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on LUV. BNP Paribas raised Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 5th. StockNews.com upgraded Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.96.

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.