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Southwest Airlines (LUV) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

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Southwest Airlines (LUV - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $27.07, moving -0.55% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.27% loss on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.47%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.14%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the airline had lost 13.86% over the past month. This has lagged the Transportation sector's loss of 4.76% and the S&P 500's loss of 2.86% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Southwest Airlines as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be October 26, 2023. In that report, analysts expect Southwest Airlines to post earnings of $0.50 per share. This would mark no growth from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $6.65 billion, up 6.95% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.96 per share and revenue of $26.3 billion, which would represent changes of +68.97% and +10.42%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Southwest Airlines. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 6.51% lower within the past month. Southwest Airlines is holding a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell) right now.

Digging into valuation, Southwest Airlines currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 13.86. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 8.07.

We can also see that LUV currently has a PEG ratio of 0.57. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Transportation - Airline was holding an average PEG ratio of 0.32 at yesterday's closing price.

The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 177, putting it in the bottom 30% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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