Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.02 EPS

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The airline reported ($0.36) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.34) by ($0.02), RTT News reports. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.59% and a return on equity of 8.91%. The company had revenue of $6.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.42 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.27) earnings per share. Southwest Airlines’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year.

Southwest Airlines Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:LUV opened at $27.04 on Friday. Southwest Airlines has a 12 month low of $21.91 and a 12 month high of $39.53. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $30.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.53. The firm has a market cap of $16.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.91, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.15.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.66%. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is 114.29%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on LUV. Evercore ISI reissued an “inline” rating and set a $35.00 price target on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $20.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.18.

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.