South Dakota Investment Council Decreases Stock Holdings in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

South Dakota Investment Council cut its holdings in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 18.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 280,513 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 62,900 shares during the quarter. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $9,431,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kestra Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 186.7% in the fourth quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 883 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 575 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the third quarter valued at about $33,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 41.1% in the third quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 1,184 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 345 shares during the period. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 34.1% in the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,770 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the period. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.40, for a total transaction of $132,405.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 89,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,074,534.40. The trade was a 4.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LUV has been the topic of a number of research reports. Raymond James increased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com raised Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Argus raised Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Southwest Airlines has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.78.

Southwest Airlines Trading Down 2.7 %

Shares of NYSE LUV opened at $29.80 on Friday. Southwest Airlines Co. has a twelve month low of $23.58 and a twelve month high of $36.12. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $30.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.66 billion, a PE ratio of 41.38, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.14.

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

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.42%. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is 100.00%.

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.