State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System Cuts Stock Position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Posted by ABMN Staff on Aug 6th, 2022

State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System cut its holdings in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV – Get Rating) by 1.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 645,422 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 12,541 shares during the quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System owned 0.11% of Southwest Airlines worth $29,560,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,680,408 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $456,702,000 after purchasing an additional 78,886 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in Southwest Airlines by 39.4% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 2,815,980 shares of the airline’s stock worth $120,637,000 after buying an additional 795,400 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Southwest Airlines by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,777,077 shares of the airline’s stock worth $118,970,000 after buying an additional 14,796 shares during the last quarter. Oldfield Partners LLP bought a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the first quarter worth $107,911,000. Finally, Scout Investments Inc. bought a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the first quarter worth $92,502,000. 76.74% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southwest Airlines

In other Southwest Airlines news, Director John T. Montford sold 2,300 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.70, for a total value of $105,110.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 23,296 shares in the company, valued at $1,064,627.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.32% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Susquehanna upgraded Southwest Airlines from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and set a $45.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Southwest Airlines from $62.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Friday, April 29th. Barclays decreased their target price on Southwest Airlines from $58.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 23rd. Cowen decreased their target price on Southwest Airlines from $67.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Friday, July 29th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Southwest Airlines from $48.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Monday, May 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $53.06.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock opened at $38.81 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $39.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $42.49. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 12 month low of $34.36 and a 12 month high of $56.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market cap of $23.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.00.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 28th. The airline reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.39. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 5.54% and a net margin of 4.71%. The company had revenue of $6.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.69 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.35) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 67.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 2.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Southwest Airlines

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Southwest Airlines Co operates as a passenger airline company that provide scheduled air transportation services in the United States and near-international markets. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated a total fleet of 728 Boeing 737 aircrafts; and served 121 destinations in 42 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as 10 near-international countries, including Mexico, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Belize, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos.