Southwest Airlines Co. · LUV · FY2025 Q4 · Calendar Q1 2026

Southwest emphasizes ancillary revenue and 2026 earnings expansion

The call supports a constructive but execution-dependent earnings-growth case: management expects ancillary products, network optimization and cost discipline to support expansion, while load factors, cost pressure and demand remain important tests.

Reported After market closeNYSEIndustrials $20.59B market cap
100quality score

Earnings scorecard

Reported versus consensus
Reported EPS $0.58 Consensus $0.57
EPS surprise +2.1% Reported versus consensus
Reported revenue $7.44B Consensus $7.50B
Revenue surprise -0.8% Reported versus consensus

Market reaction

event-close to next-session close
Stock move +18.7% Event window
SPY move -0.2% Same window
Abnormal move +18.9% Stock minus SPY
Volume 4.1× Versus trailing sessions
Subsequent drift +1.6% Up to 20 sessions
LUVSPY benchmark

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Transcript intelligence

What changed

Management highlighted a broader set of ancillary and fare products, reported full-year EBIT above prior guidance, and set 2026 adjusted EPS guidance at a minimum of $4. The focus remains on executing these initiatives without losing cost and demand discipline.

Guidance delta

2026 adjusted EPS guidance was set at a minimum of $4, while full-year EBIT of $574 million exceeded prior guidance.

Key takeaways

  • Assigned seating, extra-legroom seats, bag fees and basic economy are central revenue initiatives
  • Management highlighted record operating revenue and full-year EBIT of $574 million
  • The 2026 adjusted EPS outlook is at least $4
  • Network optimization and cost discipline remain key execution priorities

Management priorities

  • Roll out and optimize assigned seating and extra-legroom pricing
  • Continue network and route optimization
  • Pursue additional cost-takeout and operational-efficiency programs
  • Operate within investment-grade guardrails while considering opportunistic buybacks

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Earnings History

Estimate Beat Miss Match
LUV EPS earnings history estimate and actual scatter chart 10 reported fiscal quarters and 4 future estimate-only quarters. Q2 '24 estimate $0.51 Q2 '24 actual $0.58, beat Q3 '24 estimate $0.05 Q3 '24 actual $0.15, beat Q1 '25 estimate $0.70 Q1 '25 actual $-0.13, miss Q2 '25 estimate $0.51 Q2 '25 actual $0.43, miss Q3 '25 estimate $-0.04 Q3 '25 actual $0.11, beat Q4 '25 estimate $0.57 Q4 '25 actual $0.58, beat Q1 '26 estimate $0.47 Q1 '26 actual $0.45, miss Q2 '26 estimate $0.51 Q2 '26 actual $0.94, beat Q3 '26 estimate $0.59 Q4 '26 estimate $1.23 Q1 '27 estimate $0.54 Q2 '27 estimate $1.33
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Analyst Consensus ?

ConsensusHold44 ratings
Bullish1943.2%
Neutral2147.7%
Bearish49.1%

Analyst 52W Price Targets

$42.08Previous close
$27Low
$47.34Average
$72High

Latest persisted target per named analyst; persisted previous close from FN2's market snapshot as of Sep 30, 2026. Not an FN2 forecast.

Firm-level rating actions

FMP grade actions identify the grading firm, not a named analyst.

FirmRatingPrior ratingActionDate
BMO Capital Outperform OutperformMaintainSep 28, 2026
UBS Buy BuyMaintainSep 24, 2026
Rothschild & Co Neutral SellUpgradeSep 18, 2026
Barclays Overweight OverweightMaintainSep 11, 2026
TD Cowen Buy BuyMaintainAug 24, 2026
Show 39 more rating actions

Named analyst price targets

Upside is calculated against the persisted previous close $42.08. FMP does not supply a rating on these named-analyst rows.

FirmAnalyst52W targetPrice when postedUpsideDate
BMO CapitalMichael Goldie$50$42.68 +18.8%Sep 28, 2026
Redburn PartnersJames Goodall$40$40.34 -4.9%Sep 18, 2026
BarclaysAnalyst unavailable$58$38.69 +37.8%Sep 11, 2026
UBSAnalyst unavailable$49$38.68 +16.4%Sep 10, 2026
Raymond JamesAnalyst unavailable$54$40.38 +28.3%Aug 24, 2026
See 88 more

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Company context

Snapshot as of publication

Southwest Airlines Co. functions as a passenger airline, offering scheduled air travel services predominantly across the United States and to select neighboring international markets. As of December 31, 2021, the company maintained a consistent fleet of 728 Boeing 737 aircraft. Its extensive route network served 121 different locations, spanning 42 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, along with 10 international countries close by. These international destinations include Mexico, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Belize, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos.…

Historical context

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Sources

  1. Earnings call transcript and parsed analysis · 2026-05-11T10:29:34.698584+00:00
  2. FN2 earnings calendar · 2026-07-26T00:36:15.940040+00:00
  3. Polygon adjusted daily market bars · 2026-09-30T06:46:07.187983+00:00
  4. Financial Modeling Prep analyst price-target consensus and quote snapshot · 2026-09-30T06:46:07.185174+00:00

Methodology

Reported and consensus figures come from FN2's earnings event records. Market reaction and volume are calculated from daily adjusted bars around the event; abnormal move subtracts the SPY move over the same window.

Analyst target low, average, and high values are derived at request time from each named analyst's latest persisted FMP target. The current-price marker comes from FN2's persisted market snapshot. They are sell-side estimates, not an FN2 valuation or recommendation.

Transcript intelligence is a structured synthesis of the current and prior earnings-call analyses. Missing values stay missing and are never estimated.

By FN2 Research · Updated · As of 2026-09-30. For educational purposes only; not investment advice.