Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.11 EPS

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The airline reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.11, Zacks reports. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

NYSE:LUV opened at $31.22 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $33.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $30.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market cap of $18.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -445.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 1.14. Southwest Airlines has a 12-month low of $23.58 and a 12-month high of $36.12.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 26th were paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 26th. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is -1,028.57%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LUV has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $42.00 target price on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “sell” rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.31.

Insider Activity

In other Southwest Airlines news, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.40, for a total value of $132,405.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 89,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,074,534.40. The trade was a 4.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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.