Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE:LUV) saw a downside of -1.96% to close Monday at $27.50 after subtracting -$0.55 on the day. The 5-day average trading volume is 5,602,860 shares of the company’s common stock. It has gained $29.23 in the past week and touched a new high 2 times within the past 5 days. An average of 6,075,550 shares of the company has been traded in the last 20 days, and the 50-day average volume stands at 7,211,628.
LUV’s 1-month performance is -11.92% or -$3.72 on its low of $27.36 reached on 09/25/23. The company’s shares have touched a 52-week low of $28.03 and high of $40.38, with the stock’s rally to the 52-week high happening on 07/12/23. YTD, LUV has lost -18.32% or -$6.17 and has reached a new high 12 times. However, the current price is down -31.90% from the 52-week high price.
Insider Transactions
LUV stock investors last saw insider trading activity on May 02.Green Ryan C. (EVP, Chief Commercial Officer) most recently sold 4,936 shares at $29.94 per share on May 02. This transaction cost the insider $147,787. Director, MONTFORD JOHN T, sold 2,250 shares at a price of $38.87 on Nov 10.
Valuation Metrics
LUV stock has a beta of 1.18. Moving on to other valuation ratios, the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is 0.65 while the price-to-book (PB) in the most recent quarter is 1.52.
Southwest Airlines Co’s quick ratio for the period ended June 29 was 1.19, with the current ratio over the same period at 1.25. As well, the company’s long term debt to equity for the quarter ending June 29 was 0.84, while the total debt to equity was 0.86. In terms of profitability, the gross margin trailing 12 months is 17.00%. The trailing 12-month EBITDA margin is 6.45% while for the period ending June 29, Southwest Airlines Co’s operating margin was 0.64%. The firm’s gross profit as reported stood at $6.1 billion against revenue of $23.81 billion.
Earnings Surprise
For the quarterly period ending June 29 this year, Net income and sales went up compared to those figures reported in the previous quarter. Net income shrunk -11.27% to $683.0 million, while revenue of -$159.0 million was 123.28% off the previous quarter. Analysts expected LUV to announce $1.1 per share in earnings in its latest quarter, but it posted $1.09, representing a -0.90% surprise. EBITDA for the quarter stood at more than $1.16 billion. LUV stock balance sheet for the quarter ending June 29 shows that total liabilities totaled 25.73 billion, with total debt at $9.33 billion. Shareholders hold equity totaling $595.63 million.
Let’s look briefly at Southwest Airlines Co (LUV) price momentum from a technical analysis perspective. The 9-day relative strength index as at close on 25 September was 18.86% to suggest the stock is trending oversold, with historical volatility in this time period at 21.12%.
The stock’s 5-day moving average is $28.25, reflecting a -5.43% or -$1.58 change from its current price. LUV is currently trading -11.92% above its 20-day SMA, -8.21% above its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is away from the SMA50 by -24.37% and SMA200 by-30.70%.
Stochastic %K and %D was 3.02% and 7.75% and the average true range (ATR) pointed at 0.64. The RSI (14) points at 23.10%, while the 14-day stochastic is at 4.01% with the period’s ATR at 0.68. The stock’s 9-day MACD Oscillator is pointing at -0.70 and -1.01 on the 14-day charts.
Analyst Ratings
In the most recent analyst report for Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE: LUV), Exane BNP Paribas downgraded it to a Neutral rating. They previously had an Outperform rating on the stock. Analysts offering their rating for LUV stock have a consensus rating for the stock as Hold. Currently, 2 brokerage advisors rate LUV as a “sell,”, while 14 advise that investors “Hold.” 0 analysts have rated the stock as underweight. 1 rates the stock as overweight while 4 have offered a “buy” rating.
What is LUV’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts have a consensus price target ranging from a low of $25.00 and a high of $55.00, with their median price target at $33.00. Looking at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts is for Southwest Airlines Co (LUV) stock is $34.49.
