New York State Teachers Retirement System Decreases Holdings in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

New York State Teachers Retirement System reduced its position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 5.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 507,738 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 27,834 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.08% of Southwest Airlines worth $14,526,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Southwest Airlines by 21.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,475,988 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,544,387,000 after purchasing an additional 9,444,279 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 3.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,569,773 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,972,362,000 after buying an additional 2,148,435 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Southwest Airlines during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,789,000. Nuance Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Southwest Airlines during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $24,404,000. Finally, Provident Trust Co. increased its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Provident Trust Co. now owns 7,599,210 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $219,465,000 after buying an additional 460,480 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LUV. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $19.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and issued a $29.00 price target (down previously from $32.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Argus reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $30.00 target price (down from $33.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $29.00 to $28.25 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.38.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

LUV opened at $28.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.73, a PEG ratio of 24.83 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a fifty day moving average of $27.14 and a 200 day moving average of $28.66. Southwest Airlines Co. has a fifty-two week low of $21.91 and a fifty-two week high of $35.18.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The airline reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $7.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.32 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 5.92% and a net margin of 0.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.09 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.56%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.