Tyche Wealth Partners LLC Takes Position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Tyche Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 8,214 shares of the airline’s stock, valued at approximately $237,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 91,675.0% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,296,139 shares of the airline’s stock worth $515,021,000 after acquiring an additional 15,279,472 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 39.7% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 21,991,802 shares of the airline’s stock worth $715,615,000 after acquiring an additional 6,244,136 shares in the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 106.5% in the third quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 2,556,536 shares of the airline’s stock worth $69,205,000 after acquiring an additional 1,318,361 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Southwest Airlines in the fourth quarter worth $44,210,000. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,213,320 shares of the airline’s stock worth $613,243,000 after acquiring an additional 1,269,782 shares in the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI reiterated an “inline” rating and issued a $35.00 target price on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $28.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southwest Airlines currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.82.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:LUV opened at $29.06 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $17.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $30.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $28.46. 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 Co. has a 12 month low of $21.91 and a 12 month high of $39.53.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The airline reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.25. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.91% and a return on equity of 9.40%. The company had revenue of $6.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.75 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.38) earnings per share. Southwest Airlines’s revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is currently 96.00%.

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.