Brookstone Capital Management Makes New $222,000 Investment in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Brookstone Capital Management acquired a new position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 7,673 shares of the airline’s stock, valued at approximately $222,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Southwest Airlines by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,028,745 shares of the airline’s stock worth $2,886,717,000 after purchasing an additional 1,213,767 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Southwest Airlines by 39.7% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 21,991,802 shares of the airline’s stock worth $715,615,000 after purchasing an additional 6,244,136 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Southwest Airlines by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,213,320 shares of the airline’s stock worth $613,243,000 after purchasing an additional 1,269,782 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Southwest Airlines by 91,675.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,296,139 shares of the airline’s stock worth $515,021,000 after purchasing an additional 15,279,472 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Southwest Airlines by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,237,288 shares of the airline’s stock worth $397,599,000 after purchasing an additional 345,135 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on LUV shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $28.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Evercore ISI restated an “inline” rating and issued a $35.00 target price on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $20.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $32.24.

Southwest Airlines Trading Up 3.0 %

NYSE:LUV opened at $29.25 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $31.51 and its 200-day moving average is $28.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.14. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52 week low of $21.91 and a 52 week high of $39.53. The firm has a market cap of $17.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.00, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.16.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The airline reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.25. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.91% and a return on equity of 9.40%. The company had revenue of $6.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.75 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.38) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio is currently 96.00%.

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.