Southwest Airlines jumps on UBS upgrade tied to new seating and fee initiatives

Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) is up 5.5% today. Here is some analysis on what might have caused this price movement.

Analysis: The move appears primarily driven by a bullish analyst upgrade that reframed Southwest’s earnings power from its commercial overhaul (assigned seating, extra-legroom products, and checked-bag fees). A drop in oil prices may have provided an additional tailwind for airline shares, amplifying the rally.

Details:

A major brokerage upgraded the stock to Buy and raised its price target sharply, arguing that assigned seating, extra-legroom seating, and bag-fee revenue could materially lift profitability as the initiatives mature.

The same note modeled a sizable step-up in earnings over the next two years as those initiatives scale, implying meaningfully higher medium-term EPS versus many market expectations.

Southwest recently guided to 2026 adjusted EPS of at least $4.00, positioning its transformation initiatives as a key driver of the expected improvement.

Crude oil fell on renewed optimism around U.S.-Iran talks, which can benefit airlines by easing expected fuel-cost pressure.

Sources:

Investing.com

Southwest Airlines Investor Relations

Barron's

Disclaimer: This price movement analysis was generated with the help of AI. Please double-check the information provided for mistakes.

$LUV Insider Trading Activity

$LUV insiders have traded $LUV stock on the open market 1 times in the past 6 months. Of those trades, 0 have been purchases and 1 have been sales.

Here’s a breakdown of recent trading of $LUV stock by insiders over the last 6 months:

JUSTIN JONES (EVP Operations) sold 8,085 shares for an estimated $302,055

To track insider transactions, check out Quiver Quantitative's insider trading dashboard.

$LUV Hedge Fund Activity

We have seen 358 institutional investors add shares of $LUV stock to their portfolio, and 422 decrease their positions in their most recent quarter.

Here are some of the largest recent moves:

UBS GROUP AG removed 20,816,964 shares (-73.6%) from their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $860,365,122
ARTISAN PARTNERS LIMITED PARTNERSHIP removed 10,748,649 shares (-100.0%) from their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $444,241,663
CAPITAL WORLD INVESTORS removed 8,468,269 shares (-100.0%) from their portfolio in Q3 2025, for an estimated $270,222,463
GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC added 7,726,978 shares (+86.8%) to their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $319,356,000
NOMURA HOLDINGS INC removed 7,698,971 shares (-66.6%) from their portfolio in Q3 2025, for an estimated $245,674,164
JPMORGAN CHASE & CO removed 6,186,788 shares (-50.6%) from their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $255,699,948
INTERVAL PARTNERS, LP added 4,017,235 shares (+inf%) to their portfolio in Q3 2025, for an estimated $128,189,968

To track hedge funds' stock portfolios, check out Quiver Quantitative's institutional holdings dashboard.

$LUV Government Contracts

We have seen $198,619 of award payments to $LUV over the last year.

Here are some of the awards which we have have seen pay out the most over the last year:

IGF:OT:IGF DOMESTIC CHARTER - AIR TRANSPORTATION SERVICES: $82,700
DOMESTIC CHARTER - AIR TRANSPORTATION SERVICES: $79,500
DOMESTIC CHARTER - AIR TRANSPORTATION SERVICES: $33,419
CIVIL RESERVE AIR FLEET - AIR TRANSPORTATION SERVICES: $3,000

To track government contracts to publicy traded companies, check out Quiver Quantitative's government contracts dashboard.

$LUV Congressional Stock Trading

Members of Congress have traded $LUV stock 1 times in the past 6 months. Of those trades, 1 have been purchases and 0 have been sales.

Here’s a breakdown of recent trading of $LUV stock by members of Congress over the last 6 months:

REPRESENTATIVE GILBERT RAY CISNEROS, JR. purchased up to $15,000 on 09/05.

To track congressional stock trading, check out Quiver Quantitative's congressional trading dashboard.

$LUV Analyst Ratings

Wall Street analysts have issued reports on $LUV in the last several months. We have seen 3 firms issue buy ratings on the stock, and 1 firms issue sell ratings.

Here are some recent analyst ratings:

Morgan Stanley issued a "Overweight" rating on 01/30/2026
B of A Securities issued a "Underperform" rating on 01/30/2026
BMO Capital issued a "Outperform" rating on 01/30/2026
JP Morgan issued a "Overweight" rating on 01/09/2026

To track analyst ratings and price targets for $LUV, check out Quiver Quantitative's $LUV forecast page.

$LUV Price Targets

Multiple analysts have issued price targets for $LUV recently. We have seen 15 analysts offer price targets for $LUV in the last 6 months, with a median target of $50.0.

Here are some recent targets:

Christopher Stathoulopoulos from Susquehanna set a target price of $55.0 on 02/03/2026
Sheila Kahyaoglu from Jefferies set a target price of $48.0 on 02/02/2026
Atul Maheswari from UBS set a target price of $51.0 on 02/02/2026
Catherine O'Brien from Goldman Sachs set a target price of $32.0 on 01/30/2026
Christian Wetherbee from Wells Fargo set a target price of $50.0 on 01/30/2026
Ravi Shanker from Morgan Stanley set a target price of $55.0 on 01/30/2026
Andrew Didora from B of A Securities set a target price of $42.0 on 01/30/2026

This article is not financial advice. See Quiver Quantitative's disclaimers for more information. Note that there may be inaccuracies due to mistakes in ticker-mapping, and other anomalies.