Sanford C. Bernstein Lowers Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Price Target to $26.00

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) had its price objective reduced by Sanford C. Bernstein from $27.00 to $26.00 in a research report report published on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. Sanford C. Bernstein currently has a market perform rating on the airline’s stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Southwest Airlines from a hold rating to a buy rating and upped their price objective for the company from $28.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Southwest Airlines from a hold rating to an underperform rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $28.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Monday, April 29th. UBS Group started coverage on Southwest Airlines in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. They issued a buy rating and a $36.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price 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. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $30.24.

Southwest Airlines Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE LUV traded down $0.22 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $27.20. The stock had a trading volume of 379,433 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,983,234. Southwest Airlines has a 52-week low of $21.91 and a 52-week high of $39.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The firm has a market cap of $16.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.16. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $29.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.61.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The airline reported ($0.36) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.34) by ($0.02). Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.59% and a return on equity of 8.91%. The business had revenue of $6.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.42 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.27) earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Southwest Airlines will post 1.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Southwest Airlines

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LUV. IFM Investors Pty Ltd boosted 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 acquiring an additional 2,828 shares during the period. Advisor Partners II LLC boosted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 11.2% in 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 during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co increased its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 26.8% during the third quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 12,216 shares of the airline’s stock worth $331,000 after purchasing an additional 2,580 shares during the period. Gradient Investments LLC raised its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 274,594 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $7,433,000 after acquiring an additional 16,599 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ING Groep NV bought a new position in Southwest Airlines in the 3rd quarter valued at about $75,000. 80.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.