Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Announces Earnings Results

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) released its earnings results on Thursday. The airline reported ($0.36) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.34) by ($0.02), RTT News reports. The business had revenue of $6.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.42 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 8.91% and a net margin of 1.59%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.27) earnings per share.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

NYSE:LUV opened at $27.04 on Friday. Southwest Airlines has a 52-week low of $21.91 and a 52-week high of $39.53. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $30.34 and a 200 day moving average of $28.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.91, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.15.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were issued a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.66%. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is currently 114.29%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on LUV. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “inline” rating and issued a $35.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $30.00 price target (down previously from $33.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Friday. Barclays dropped their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Argus raised Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Southwest Airlines from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.18.

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.