Redwood Investment Management LLC Buys Shares of 160,084 Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Redwood Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 160,084 shares of the airline’s stock, valued at approximately $4,728,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 21.6% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,828,166 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $166,742,000 after buying an additional 1,034,496 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 608.5% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 3,623,333 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $107,359,000 after purchasing an additional 3,111,946 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 1.4% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,377,660 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $100,080,000 after purchasing an additional 46,110 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 6,414.5% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 3,006,000 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $89,068,000 after purchasing an additional 2,959,857 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the second quarter valued at approximately $48,551,000. 80.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LUV has been the topic of several research reports. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Citigroup increased 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. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now owns 59,912,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,787,192,261.40. The trade was a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Rakesh Gangwal purchased 643,788 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at $108,117,203.78. This trade represents a 21.73 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of LUV stock opened at $34.13 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.92. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52 week low of $23.58 and a 52 week high of $35.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.38 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

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

Southwest Airlines Company Profile

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.