LGT Group Foundation Buys New Holdings in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

LGT Group Foundation purchased a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 7,072 shares of the airline’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of LUV. Xponance Inc. boosted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 3.4% in the third quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 77,883 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $2,108,000 after purchasing an additional 2,558 shares during the last quarter. Total Clarity Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in Southwest Airlines during the third quarter valued at approximately $480,000. IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 11.9% during the 3rd quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 26,568 shares of the airline’s stock worth $719,000 after purchasing an additional 2,828 shares during the period. Advisor Partners II LLC increased its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Advisor Partners II LLC now owns 11,540 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $312,000 after purchasing an additional 1,160 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CENTRAL TRUST Co lifted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 26.8% in the 3rd quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 12,216 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $331,000 after purchasing an additional 2,580 shares during the period. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on LUV. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $36.00 price objective for the company. TD Cowen reduced their target price on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $26.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Argus raised shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.59.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of LUV opened at $26.14 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $15.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.49, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.16. Southwest Airlines Co. has a fifty-two week low of $21.91 and a fifty-two week high of $39.53. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $29.71 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.54.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The airline reported ($0.36) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.34) by ($0.02). Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.59% and a return on equity of 8.91%. The firm had revenue of $6.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.42 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.27) EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.