Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE:LUV) finished Thursday with an addition of $0.41 to close at $27.22, an upside of 1.53 percent. An average of 7,874,920 shares of common stock have been traded in the last five days. There was a fall of -$1.06 in the past week, and it reached a new high 19 times over the past 12 months. The last 20 days have seen an average of 6,789,385 shares traded, while the 50-day average volume stands at 7,437,506.
LUV stock has decreased by -14.43% in the last month. The company shares reached their 1-month lowest point of $26.46 on 09/27/23. With the stock rallying to its 52-week high on 07/12/23, shares of the company touched a low of $26.46 and a high of $40.38 in 52 weeks. It has reached a new high 12 times so far this year and lost -19.16% or -$6.45 in price. In spite of this, the price is down -32.59% from the 52-week high.
Insider Transactions
LUV stock investors should be aware that Southwest Airlines Co (LUV) stock had its last reported insider trading activity 150 days ago on May 02. In this transaction, the insider spent $147,787. Director, MONTFORD JOHN T, disposed of 2,250 shares at a price of $38.87 on Nov 10. The insider now owns more than $87,458 worth of shares.
Valuation Metrics
Southwest Airlines Co (LUV) has a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 31.49. The stock’s beta is 1.19. Other valuation ratios to consider include the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio at 0.65, the price-to-book (PB) ratio at 1.50.
The company has a payout ratio of 21.44%. The company’s most recent quarterly dividend payment was $0.18 a share, without any change from last year. Its latest increase dividend $0.02 reported on Thursday May 16 2019.
Financial Health
The quick ratio of Southwest Airlines Co for the three months ended June 29 was 1.19, and the current ratio was 1.25, indicating that the company is able to meet its debt obligations. Further, the company has a long term debt to equity ratio of 0.84 and a total debt to equity ratio of 0.86 for the quarter ending June 29. Southwest Airlines Co’s EBITDA margin for the year ending June 29 is 6.45%, while its operating margin for the same period stands at 0.64%. Its gross profit as reported stood at $6.1 billion compared to revenue of $23.81 billion.
Earnings Surprise
For the three-month period that ended June 29, Southwest Airlines Co had $7.99 billion in total debt. In the quarter under review, the net income was up than the previous quarter. The company posted a net income of $683.0 million in the quarter, while revenues were shrunk -11.27%. The analyst consensus anticipated Southwest Airlines Co’s latest quarter earnings to come in at $1.1 per share, but it turned out to be $1.09, a -0.90% surprise. For the quarter, EBITDA amounted to $1.16 billion. Shareholders own equity worth $595.63 million.
Technical Picture
From a technical analysis perspective, let’s take a brief look at Southwest Airlines Co (LUV) price momentum. RSI 9-day as of the close on 28 September was 29.02%, suggesting the stock is oversold, with historical volatility in this time frame at 21.47%.
As of today, LUV’s price is $27.23 -3.75% or -$1.06 from its 5-day moving average. LUV is currently trading -13.94% lower than its 20-day SMA and -8.23% lower than its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is -27.12% below the SMA50 and -28.39% below the SMA200.
The stochastic %K and %D were 11.25% and 5.97%, respectively, and the average true range (ATR) was 0.68. With the 14-day stochastic at 22.82% and the average true range at 0.70, the RSI (14) stands at 28.56%. The stock has reached -1.02 on the 9-day MACD Oscillator while the 14-day reading was at -1.50.
Analyst Ratings
Exane BNP Paribas downgraded Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE: LUV) to a a Neutral rating in its most recent analyst report. Previously, the stock was rated as an Outperform. The consensus rating for Southwest Airlines Co (LUV) among analysts is Hold. According to current brokerage recommendations, 2 brokerage firms advise that investors sell LUV, while 14 suggest investors hold. There are 0 analysts who rate the stock as underweight. The stock is rated overweight by 2 analysts, while 4 others rate it as a “buy”.
What is LUV’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts predict a range of price targets between $20.00 and $55.00, with a median target of $33.00. Taking a look at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts for Southwest Airlines Co (LUV) stock is $34.21.
