Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Grows Stock Position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH grew its position in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 6.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,190,255 shares of the airline’s stock after purchasing an additional 133,366 shares during the quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $73,636,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LUV. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the second quarter worth about $212,000. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. boosted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 15.6% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 26,661 shares of the airline’s stock worth $763,000 after buying an additional 3,591 shares during the period. AE Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Southwest Airlines by 40.4% in the 2nd quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 24,908 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $713,000 after buying an additional 7,173 shares in the last quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc raised its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 82.1% during the 2nd quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 61,430 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,758,000 after acquiring an additional 27,700 shares during the period. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 8.8% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 82,679 shares of the airline’s stock worth $2,365,000 after acquiring an additional 6,721 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock opened at $33.32 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $33.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $30.18. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 12 month low of $23.58 and a 12 month high of $36.12. 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 (NYSE:LUV) last issued its quarterly 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 analysts’ expectations of $6.77 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.38 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.83 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 26th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.16%. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is -1,028.57%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on LUV shares. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $33.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded 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. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “sell” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Friday, November 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $32.31.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.40, for a total transaction of $132,405.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 89,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,074,534.40. This represents a 4.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total transaction of $35,912,933.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 59,912,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,787,192,261.40. The trade was a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.