Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Issues Earnings Results

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The airline reported ($0.36) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.34) by ($0.02), RTT News reports. The business had revenue of $6.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.42 billion. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.91% and a return on equity of 9.40%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.27) earnings per share.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of LUV opened at $27.26 on Friday. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average of $30.48 and a 200-day moving average of $28.53. The company has a market cap of $16.31 billion, a PE ratio of 36.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.15. Southwest Airlines has a one year low of $21.91 and a one year high of $39.53.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business 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. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is presently 96.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Argus upgraded Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. Evercore ISI restated an “inline” rating and set a $35.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $20.00 to $28.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. StockNews.com cut shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southwest Airlines presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.82.

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.