Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.07 EPS

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The airline reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.07, RTT News reports. The firm had revenue of $7.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.32 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 8.91% and a net margin of 1.59%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.09 earnings per share.

Southwest Airlines Stock Down 2.6 %

Shares of NYSE LUV traded down $0.72 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $27.36. 4,194,839 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,296,038. The company’s fifty day moving average is $27.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $29.21. Southwest Airlines has a fifty-two week low of $21.91 and a fifty-two week high of $35.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market cap of $16.37 billion, a PE ratio of 43.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.15.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 19th were given a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 18th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.63%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio is currently 114.29%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LUV has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Argus restated a “hold” rating on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $26.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 6th. HSBC began coverage on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Monday, May 13th. They set a “hold” rating and a $27.80 price objective for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $29.00 target price (down from $32.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Friday. Finally, Melius restated a “sell” rating and issued a $26.00 price target on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $28.88.

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.