Hilltop Holdings Inc. Sells 3,775 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Hilltop Holdings Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 13.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 24,540 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 3,775 shares during the period. Hilltop Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $727,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 14.9% during the 3rd quarter. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC now owns 467,200 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $13,843,000 after acquiring an additional 60,500 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 3rd quarter valued at about $759,000. Appian Way Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 3rd quarter valued at about $4,238,000. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 27.9% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 58,161 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,723,000 after purchasing an additional 12,701 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. increased its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 68,470 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $2,029,000 after purchasing an additional 5,107 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 3.5 %

LUV stock opened at $34.13 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $20.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -487.57, a PEG ratio of 7.71 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 12 month low of $23.58 and a 12 month high of $35.18. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $31.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $28.92.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10. Southwest Airlines had a negative net margin of 0.06% and a positive return on equity of 4.56%. The company had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.38 EPS. Southwest Airlines’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.11%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -1,028.57%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on LUV. 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 report on Tuesday, October 15th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. UBS Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $27.00 price target on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Jefferies Financial Group raised 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 report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.25.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Rakesh Gangwal purchased 643,788 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was acquired at an average price of $29.98 per share, with a total value of $19,300,764.24. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. This represents a 21.73 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total transaction of $35,912,933.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 59,912,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,787,192,261.40. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate 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.