Barclays Trims Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Target Price to $26.00

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) had its price objective dropped by analysts at Barclays from $30.00 to $26.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the airline’s stock. Barclays‘s target price suggests a potential downside of 3.20% from the stock’s current price.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $20.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Argus upgraded Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Raymond James upped their target price on Southwest Airlines from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $26.00 to $32.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Four equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.53.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of LUV traded down $0.40 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $26.86. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,034,381 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,623,183. Southwest Airlines has a 1-year low of $21.91 and a 1-year high of $39.53. The stock has a market cap of $16.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.81, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.15. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The airline reported ($0.36) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.34) by ($0.02). Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.91% and a return on equity of 9.40%. The business had revenue of $6.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.27) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate 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 institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. New York State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 535,572 shares of the airline’s stock worth $15,633,000 after purchasing an additional 3,747 shares in the last quarter. TRUE Private Wealth Advisors grew its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 8.8% in the 1st quarter. TRUE Private Wealth Advisors now owns 18,914 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $552,000 after buying an additional 1,531 shares during the last quarter. Hedges Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 127.1% in the 1st quarter. Hedges Asset Management LLC now owns 92,900 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $2,712,000 after buying an additional 52,000 shares during the last quarter. Smith Anglin Financial LLC grew its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Smith Anglin Financial LLC now owns 140,598 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $4,104,000 after buying an additional 1,188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 13,015 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $380,000 after buying an additional 779 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

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.