Capital Research & Management Co recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE:LUV). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Industrials company by 190.27% to 44.03 million shares with purchase of 28.86 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 7.39% valued currently at $1.13 billion. In addition, BlackRock Fund Advisors raised its holdings by 0.12 million to 27.04 million shares. And T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. has lifted its position by 1.51% or 0.36 million shares – to 24.24 million shares.
With over 5.18 million Southwest Airlines Co (LUV) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $29.15 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $150.98 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -17.30% and its price on 12/26/23 lost nearly -1.19%. Currently, there are 594.00M common shares owned by the public and among those 593.60M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 22 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for LUV have a consensus price objective of $27.12. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $47.00 and a low of $18.00. The average price target is -7.49% below its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -61.94% over that period. But an upside of 37.98% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $27.50.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 30 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 20 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 320,995 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 10 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 70,265 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Southwest Airlines Co are Vanguard PRIMECAP Fund, Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, and American Balanced Fund. Vanguard PRIMECAP Fund owns 25.44 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $650.47 million. The company sold 3270.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 4.27% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF bought 24443.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 18.71 million shares valued at over $478.41 million and representing 3.14% of the shares outstanding. American Balanced Fund bought 12.92 million shares to bring its total holdings to over 17.61 million shares at a value of $450.26 million. American Balanced Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.95% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE: LUV) opened at $29.43, down -$0.07 from a prior closing price of $29.50. However, the script later moved the day high at 29.57, down -1.19%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 0.62% and 9.75% over the past three months. LUV shares are trading -13.42% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -17.79% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $21.91 and touched a high of $39.53 over the same period. LUV has an average intraday trading volume of 8.42 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 3.78%, 13.73%, and -3.04% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE: LUV) shares accounts for 81.29% of the company’s 594.00M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 28.32%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 53.16% and 10.26% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $17.38B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.20. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 39.80, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $0.73. The company has a PEG of 1.37 and a Quick Ratio of 1.14 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.84. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.08% over the week and 2.80% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines Co (LUV) will achieve an EPS of $The Lion Electric Company for the current quarter, $1.84 for the next quarter and $Stocks for Type. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $Lufax Holding Ltd while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $Live Nation Entertainment, Inc.. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $Arcimoto, Inc. a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 21.48%, and 11.13% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 28.96% over the next five years, compared to -31.51% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 22 brokerage firm advisors rate Southwest Airlines Co (LUV) as a “Hold” at a consensus score of 3.05. Specifically, 3 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 12 of the 22 advise that investors “hold,” and 4 rated it as a “Sell.”
