Equities Analysts Offer Predictions for Southwest Airlines Co.’s Q3 2024 Earnings (NYSE:LUV)

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) – Seaport Res Ptn boosted their Q3 2024 earnings estimates for shares of Southwest Airlines in a report issued on Monday, April 15th. Seaport Res Ptn analyst D. Mckenzie now expects that the airline will post earnings per share of $0.55 for the quarter, up from their previous estimate of $0.40. The consensus estimate for Southwest Airlines’ current full-year earnings is $1.52 per share. Seaport Res Ptn also issued estimates for Southwest Airlines’ Q4 2024 earnings at $0.70 EPS, FY2024 earnings at $1.85 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $2.85 EPS.

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on LUV. StockNews.com cut shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $26.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Argus raised shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 12th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.82.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of LUV traded up $0.73 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $28.78. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 7,943,887 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,387,563. Southwest Airlines has a fifty-two week low of $21.91 and a fifty-two week high of $39.53. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $31.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.40, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.07.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The airline reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $6.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.75 billion. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.91% and a return on equity of 9.40%. The business’s revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.38) EPS.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Southwest Airlines

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LUV. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $515,021,000 after purchasing an additional 15,279,472 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 21.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,475,988 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,544,387,000 after purchasing an additional 9,444,279 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $715,615,000 after purchasing an additional 6,244,136 shares in the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH boosted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 106.5% in the 3rd quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 2,556,536 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $69,205,000 after purchasing an additional 1,318,361 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the 4th quarter valued at $44,210,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.50%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio is currently 96.00%.

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.