M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. Invests $523,000 in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 15,558 shares of the airline’s stock, valued at approximately $523,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 32.9% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 65,831 shares of the airline’s stock worth $2,105,000 after purchasing an additional 16,293 shares during the last quarter. Olstein Capital Management L.P. grew its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 33.7% in the 3rd quarter. Olstein Capital Management L.P. now owns 258,000 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $7,645,000 after buying an additional 65,000 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the 2nd quarter valued at about $609,000. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its stake in Southwest Airlines by 6,414.5% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 3,006,000 shares of the airline’s stock worth $89,068,000 after buying an additional 2,959,857 shares during the period. Finally, Highland Peak Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the third quarter worth approximately $2,963,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on LUV shares. StockNews.com upgraded Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on Southwest Airlines from $33.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Raymond James upped their target price on Southwest Airlines from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Southwest Airlines news, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 59,912,580 shares in the company, valued at $1,787,192,261.40. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.40, for a total value 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. This represents a 4.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 0.1 %

LUV stock opened at $32.19 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $33.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $30.14. Southwest Airlines Co. has a one year low of $23.58 and a one year high of $36.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.77 billion. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The business’s revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.38 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 26th were paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 26th. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is presently -1,028.57%.

Southwest Airlines 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.