Melius Research Upgrades Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) to “Hold”

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Melius Research from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $34.00 target price on the airline’s stock, up from their prior target price of $28.00. Melius Research’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 1.09% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the company. Argus upgraded Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $29.00 to $36.00 in a report on Thursday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.52.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Southwest Airlines stock opened at $33.63 on Thursday. Southwest Airlines has a 52-week low of $23.58 and a 52-week high of $36.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $31.10 and its 200 day moving average is $31.31. The company has a market cap of $19.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.71, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.10.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The airline reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.11. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.69% and a return on equity of 5.77%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines will post 1.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Southwest Airlines

In other Southwest Airlines news, Director C. David Cush purchased 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $30.03 per share, for a total transaction of $150,150.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 19,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $570,900.33. The trade was a 35.69 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Southwest Airlines

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of LUV. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,653,945 shares of the airline’s stock worth $2,308,146,000 after buying an additional 426,878 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 32,978,869 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,108,750,000 after acquiring an additional 2,896,150 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Southwest Airlines by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,152,996 shares of the airline’s stock worth $475,092,000 after acquiring an additional 320,421 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Southwest Airlines by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,111,634 shares of the airline’s stock worth $205,476,000 after acquiring an additional 372,313 shares during the period. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its stake in Southwest Airlines by 66.0% during the 4th quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 6,014,828 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $202,219,000 after purchasing an additional 2,391,495 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.82% 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.