How to buy Southwest Airlines stock | $39.68

Southwest Airlines Co is an airlines business based in the US. Southwest Airlines shares (LUV) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Southwest Airlines employs 57,931 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$12.8 billion.

How to buy shares in Southwest Airlines

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Southwest Airlines. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: LUV. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Southwest Airlines reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$39.68, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Southwest Airlines, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Southwest Airlines. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

Southwest Airlines share price

Use our graph to track the performance of LUV stocks over time.

Southwest Airlines shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-12-26.

Latest market close	USD$39.68
52-week range	USD$22.465 - USD$58.6045
50-day moving average	USD$45.9206
200-day moving average	USD$38.7173
Wall St. target price	USD$51.35
PE ratio	108.4118
Dividend yield	USD$0.72 (2.13%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$0.305

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Is it a good time to buy Southwest Airlines stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Southwest Airlines Co by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Southwest Airlines price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $39.68 from 2020-10-16

1 week (2021-01-12)	-17.56%
1 month (2020-12-23)	-15.12%
3 months (2020-10-23)	-7.27%
6 months (2020-07-23)	21.01%

1 year (2020-01-19)	N/A
2 years (2019-01-19)	N/A
3 years (2018-01-19)	65.05
5 years (2016-01-19)	0.20%

Is Southwest Airlines under- or over-valued?

Valuing Southwest Airlines stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Southwest Airlines's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Southwest Airlines's P/E ratio

Southwest Airlines's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 108x. In other words, Southwest Airlines shares trade at around 108x recent earnings.

That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.

Southwest Airlines's PEG ratio

Southwest Airlines's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 28.3709. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Southwest Airlines's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Southwest Airlines's EBITDA

Southwest Airlines's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$229 million.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Southwest Airlines's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Southwest Airlines financials

Revenue TTM	USD$12.8 billion
Gross profit TTM	USD$7 billion
Return on assets TTM	-1.71%
Return on equity TTM	-16.78%
Profit margin	-12.95%
Book value	$16.55
Market capitalisation	USD$27.3 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Southwest Airlines shares

There are currently 16.6 million Southwest Airlines shares held short by investors – that's known as Southwest Airlines's "short interest". This figure is 21.6% up from 13.6 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Southwest Airlines shares can be evaluated.

Southwest Airlines's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Southwest Airlines's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Southwest Airlines shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Southwest Airlines shares traded daily (recently around 9.0 million). Southwest Airlines's SIR currently stands at 1.85. In other words for every 100,000 Southwest Airlines shares traded daily on the market, roughly 1850 shares are currently held short.

However Southwest Airlines's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Southwest Airlines shares, or, against the total number of tradable Southwest Airlines shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Southwest Airlines's short interest could be expressed as 0.03% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Southwest Airlines shares in existence, roughly 30 shares are currently held short) or 0.0358% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Southwest Airlines shares, roughly 36 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Southwest Airlines.

Find out more about how you can short Southwest Airlines stock.

Southwest Airlines's environmental, social and governance track record

Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like Southwest Airlines.

When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.

Southwest Airlines's total ESG risk score

Total ESG risk: 29.94

Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and Southwest Airlines's overall score of 29.94 (as at 01/01/2019) is pretty weak – landing it in it in the 61st percentile of companies rated in the same sector.

ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like Southwest Airlines is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).

Southwest Airlines's environmental score

Environmental score: 8.72/100

Southwest Airlines's social score

Social score: 11.49/100

Southwest Airlines's governance score

Governance score: 4.73/100

Southwest Airlines's controversy score

Controversy score: 2/5

ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. Southwest Airlines scored a 2 out of 5 for controversy – the second-highest score possible, reflecting that Southwest Airlines has, for the most part, managed to keep its nose clean.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary

Southwest Airlines Co was last rated for ESG on: 2019-01-01.

Total ESG score	29.94
Total ESG percentile	61.04
Environmental score	8.72
Social score	11.49
Governance score	4.73
Level of controversy	2

Southwest Airlines share dividends

We're not expecting Southwest Airlines to pay a dividend over the next 12 months.

Have Southwest Airlines's shares ever split?

Southwest Airlines's shares were split on a 3:2 basis on 16 February 2001. So if you had owned 2 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 3 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Southwest Airlines shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 33.3% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Southwest Airlines shares which in turn could have impacted Southwest Airlines's share price.

Southwest Airlines share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Southwest Airlines's shares have ranged in value from as little as $22.465 up to $58.6045. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Southwest Airlines's is 1.242. This would suggest that Southwest Airlines's shares are a little bit more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a slightly higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

Southwest Airlines overview

Southwest Airlines Co. operates a passenger airline that provides scheduled air transportation services in the United States and near-international markets. As of December 31, 2019, the company operated a total of 747 Boeing 737 aircraft; and served 101 destinations in 40 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as 10 near-international countries, including Mexico, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Belize, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos. It also offers inflight entertainment and connectivity service on Wi-Fi enabled aircraft; and sells points and related services to business partners participating in the Rapid Rewards loyalty program, such as car rental agencies, hotels, and restaurants. In addition, the company provides a suite of digital platforms to support customers' needs across the travel journey, including Southwest.com, mobile.southwest.com, an iOS app, an iPadOS app, and an android app; and SWABIZ, an online booking tool. Further, it offers ancillary services, such as Southwest's EarlyBird Check-In, upgraded boarding, and transportation of pets and unaccompanied minors. Southwest Airlines Co. was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Southwest Airlines is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 0.251% of Southwest Airlines shares are held by insiders and 75.966% by institutions.

• How many people work for Southwest Airlines?

  Latest data suggests 57,931 work at Southwest Airlines.

• When does the fiscal year end for Southwest Airlines?

  Southwest Airlines's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is Southwest Airlines based?

  Southwest Airlines's address is: PO Box 36611, Dallas, TX, United States, 75235-1611

• What is Southwest Airlines's ISIN number?

  Southwest Airlines's international securities identification number is: US8447411088

• What is Southwest Airlines's CUSIP number?

  Southwest Airlines's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 844741108