Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. Boosts Holdings in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 1,052.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 6,153 shares of the airline’s stock after buying an additional 5,619 shares during the period. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd.’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $181,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in LUV. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 91,675.0% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,296,139 shares of the airline’s stock worth $515,021,000 after buying an additional 15,279,472 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 39.7% in the first 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. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH increased its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 106.5% in the third quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 2,556,536 shares of the airline’s stock worth $69,205,000 after purchasing an additional 1,318,361 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the fourth quarter worth about $44,210,000. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 7.5% in the fourth 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on LUV shares. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $36.00 target price for the company. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.82.

Southwest Airlines Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock opened at $29.06 on Friday. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 1 year low of $21.91 and a 1 year high of $39.53. The firm has a market cap of $17.39 billion, a PE ratio of 38.75, a PEG ratio of 1.02 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. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $30.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.46.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The airline reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.25. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.91% and a return on equity of 9.40%. The business had revenue of $6.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.38) earnings per share. Southwest Airlines’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were issued a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.48%. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is 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.