TD Cowen Trims Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Target Price to $25.00

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) had its price objective reduced by TD Cowen from $26.00 to $25.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday, Briefing.com reports. The firm presently has a “hold” rating on the airline’s stock. TD Cowen’s price objective would indicate a potential downside of 8.27% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on LUV. Evercore ISI reissued an “inline” rating and set a $35.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $36.00 price objective on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $26.00 to $32.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $20.00 to $28.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.76.

Southwest Airlines Stock Down 7.0 %

Shares of NYSE:LUV opened at $27.26 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $30.48 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.53. The stock has a market cap of $16.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.15. Southwest Airlines has a fifty-two week low of $21.91 and a fifty-two week high of $39.53. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The airline reported ($0.36) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.34) by ($0.02). The firm 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 firm’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.27) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Southwest Airlines will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Southwest Airlines

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of LUV. Capital World Investors grew its position in 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 buying an additional 9,444,279 shares during the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH grew its position in 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 buying an additional 1,318,361 shares during the last quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 24.9% during the 4th quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. now owns 6,210,347 shares of the airline’s stock worth $179,355,000 after purchasing an additional 1,238,468 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 4th quarter worth $29,789,000. Finally, Nuance Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 4th quarter worth $24,404,000. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.