Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Issues Earnings Results

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

Southwest Airlines Trading Down 0.8 %

Southwest Airlines stock traded down $0.23 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $27.03. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 16,106,007 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,102,757. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $30.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $28.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.07. Southwest Airlines has a 12 month low of $21.91 and a 12 month high of $39.53. The stock has a market cap of $16.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.15.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on LUV. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $26.00 to $32.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $28.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. StockNews.com cut shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Argus raised Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company 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.