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Southwest Airlines (LUV) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Southwest Airlines (LUV - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $53.18, moving +0.55% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.21%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.64%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.05%.

Coming into today, shares of the airline had lost 0.32% in the past month. In that same time, the Transportation sector gained 2.48%, while the S&P 500 gained 2.57%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from LUV as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.70, down 6.67% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $5.26 billion, up 6.45% from the year-ago period.

LUV's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.98 per share and revenue of $23.50 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +17.45% and +6.97%, respectively.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for LUV. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 2.84% lower within the past month. LUV is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note LUV's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 10.62. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 9.8, which means LUV is trading at a premium to the group.

Investors should also note that LUV has a PEG ratio of 0.93 right now. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Transportation - Airline stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 0.54 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 54, putting it in the top 22% 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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