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

M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. bought a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 15,558 shares of the airline’s stock, valued at approximately $523,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 41.1% during the third quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 1,184 shares of the airline’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 345 shares in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 60.6% during the third quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 1,661 shares of the airline’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 627 shares in the last quarter. New England Capital Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 35.3% during the third quarter. New England Capital Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,923 shares of the airline’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 502 shares in the last quarter. Finally, City State Bank lifted its position in Southwest Airlines by 55.8% in the 3rd quarter. City State Bank now owns 1,955 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 700 shares in the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on LUV. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “sell” rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 30th. Susquehanna raised their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $33.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $42.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $32.31.

Southwest Airlines Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:LUV opened at $32.19 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Southwest Airlines Co. has a twelve month low of $23.58 and a twelve month high of $36.12. The company’s 50 day moving average is $33.02 and its 200 day moving average is $30.14.

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. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The firm had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.38 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Southwest Airlines news, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of Southwest Airlines 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 transaction, 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 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 shares were sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total value of $35,912,933.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 59,912,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,787,192,261.40. This trade 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.

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.