Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.02 EPS

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The airline reported ($0.36) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.34) by ($0.02), RTT News reports. The company had revenue of $6.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.42 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 9.40% and a net margin of 1.91%. The company’s revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.27) EPS.

Southwest Airlines Stock Down 8.5 %

Shares of LUV stock traded down $2.48 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $26.82. 11,313,675 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,348,401. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $30.62 and its 200-day moving average is $28.54. The company has a market cap of $16.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.15. 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 has a fifty-two week low of $21.91 and a fifty-two week high of $39.53.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 2.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 96.00%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on LUV. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Southwest Airlines from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Southwest Airlines from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Argus raised shares of 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. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.82.

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.