Empower Advisory Group LLC Buys 10,147 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Empower Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 69.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 24,680 shares of the airline’s stock after buying an additional 10,147 shares during the period. Empower Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $731,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in LUV. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 14.9% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 61,422,187 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,792,914,000 after buying an additional 7,946,199 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,569,773 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,972,362,000 after acquiring an additional 2,148,435 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the second quarter valued at about $48,551,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its position in Southwest Airlines by 629.5% in the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,590,298 shares of the airline’s stock worth $45,498,000 after purchasing an additional 1,372,305 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 21.6% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,828,166 shares of the airline’s stock worth $166,742,000 after purchasing an additional 1,034,496 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LUV. BNP Paribas raised Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Barclays increased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $19.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.96.

Insider Activity at Southwest Airlines

In related news, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total transaction of $35,912,933.60. Following the sale, the insider now owns 59,912,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,787,192,261.40. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Rakesh Gangwal bought 643,788 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $29.98 per share, with a total value of $19,300,764.24. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. This trade represents a 21.73 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Southwest Airlines Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE LUV opened at $32.42 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $30.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Southwest Airlines Co. has a fifty-two week low of $23.58 and a fifty-two week high of $35.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.44 billion, a P/E ratio of -463.07, a P/E/G ratio of 7.49 and a beta of 1.15.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The business had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.38 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.75 EPS for the current year.

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.