Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.39 EPS

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.39, RTT News reports. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 0.41% and a return on equity of 5.92%. The firm had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.38 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

LUV traded down $0.76 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $29.97. 1,966,396 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,353,527. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The company has a market capitalization of $17.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 236.40, a PEG ratio of 11.82 and a beta of 1.17. Southwest Airlines has a 52-week low of $21.91 and a 52-week high of $35.18. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $29.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.11.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.40%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 553.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LUV has been the subject of several research reports. Evercore ISI raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $29.00 price objective (down previously from $32.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.33.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Rakesh Gangwal acquired 643,788 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

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.