Morgan Stanley, Evercore Cut Price Target On This Domestic Carrier

  • Evercore ISI analyst Duane Pfenningwerth downgraded Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE: LUV) to In-Line from Outperform and lowered the price target of $48 (an upside of 0.51%) from $55.

  • Given his view of longer-lasting rebuild cost pressures and his opinion that Street expectations are "overly optimistic," he sees muted valuation upside.

  • As a response to insufficient staffing and recent operational challenges, Southwest is "logically" slowing its growth rate in Q4 and Q1, but ramping hiring while slowing growth and increasing capital intensity makes it tougher to argue for the stock as a standout versus better executing alternative airlines, Pfenningwerth noes.

  • Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker lowered the price target to $71 (an upside of 48%) from $76 and maintained an Overweight rating on the shares.

  • Price Action: LUV shares are trading lower by 1.95% at $47.71 on the last check Friday.

Latest Ratings for LUV

Oct 2021

Raymond James

Maintains

Outperform

Oct 2021

Morgan Stanley

Maintains

Overweight

Oct 2021

Evercore ISI Group

Downgrades

Outperform

In-Line

View More Analyst Ratings for LUV
View the Latest Analyst Ratings

See more from Benzinga

© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.