The Goldman Sachs Group Reiterates Sell Rating for Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV)

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV)‘s stock had its “sell” rating reiterated by stock analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. They presently have a $28.00 price objective on the airline’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price target points to a potential downside of 14.11% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Barclays increased their price target on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. BNP Paribas raised Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $19.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.78.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

LUV stock opened at $32.60 on Friday. Southwest Airlines has a fifty-two week low of $23.58 and a fifty-two week high of $35.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $30.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.45.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.77 billion. Southwest Airlines had a negative net margin of 0.06% and a positive return on equity of 4.56%. Southwest Airlines’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.38 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines will post 0.75 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southwest Airlines

In other Southwest Airlines news, Director Rakesh Gangwal acquired 643,788 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was acquired at an average price of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at $108,117,203.78. This represents a 21.73 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total transaction of $35,912,933.60. Following the sale, the insider now owns 59,912,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,787,192,261.40. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Southwest Airlines

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LUV. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 3.0% in the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 618,601 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $18,057,000 after buying an additional 17,873 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in Southwest Airlines by 15.0% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 493,954 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $14,419,000 after purchasing an additional 64,284 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,569,773 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,972,362,000 after purchasing an additional 2,148,435 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the 1st quarter worth approximately $120,000. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 34.9% in the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 14,607 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $426,000 after purchasing an additional 3,775 shares during the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.