Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.18

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 5th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share by the airline on Wednesday, April 2nd. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.33%.

Southwest Airlines has a dividend payout ratio of 30.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Southwest Airlines to earn $2.47 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.1%.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 0.4 %

NYSE:LUV opened at $30.91 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $18.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.14. Southwest Airlines has a one year low of $23.58 and a one year high of $36.12. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.92.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The airline reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.11. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 5.77% and a net margin of 1.69%. Sell-side analysts predict that Southwest Airlines will post 1.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on LUV. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $28.00 price target on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday, November 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on Southwest Airlines from $38.00 to $34.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. 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. Finally, Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and issued a $31.00 target price (down from $33.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.08.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.40, for a total transaction of $132,405.60. Following the sale, the insider now owns 89,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,074,534.40. The trade was a 4.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.