Bayesian Capital Management LP Sells 13,200 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Bayesian Capital Management LP decreased its position in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 17.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 61,502 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 13,200 shares during the quarter. Bayesian Capital Management LP’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $1,795,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in LUV. Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 21.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,475,988 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,544,387,000 after buying an additional 9,444,279 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,569,773 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,972,362,000 after purchasing an additional 2,148,435 shares during the last quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 24.9% during the 4th quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. now owns 6,210,347 shares of the airline’s stock worth $179,355,000 after purchasing an additional 1,238,468 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 4th quarter worth $29,789,000. Finally, Nuance Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 4th quarter worth $24,404,000. Institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $26.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $28.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and set a $29.00 price objective (down from $32.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $30.00 price target (down from $33.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Argus reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Tuesday, May 28th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $28.50.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of LUV traded up $0.68 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $26.99. 9,219,075 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,400,414. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.90. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 12-month low of $21.91 and a 12-month high of $35.18. The company has a market cap of $16.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.15. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $27.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $29.17.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The airline reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.07. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 5.92% and a net margin of 0.41%. The firm had revenue of $7.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.32 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.09 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 19th were paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 18th. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 114.29%.

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.