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Southwest Airlines (LUV) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

Southwest Airlines (LUV) closed at $37.10 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.65% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.6%. At the same time, the Dow added 1.34%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 2.26%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the airline had lost 2.1% over the past month. This has lagged the Transportation sector's gain of 0.15% and was narrower than the S&P 500's loss of 5.3% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from LUV as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be October 22, 2020. The company is expected to report EPS of -$2.52, down 304.88% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $1.65 billion, down 70.77% from the year-ago period.

LUV's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of -$6.40 per share and revenue of $9.69 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -249.88% and -56.81%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for LUV should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about 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.

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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.68% lower. LUV currently has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 236, which puts it in the bottom 8% 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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