Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) earnings on July 22, 2026
More Southwest Airlines Co. earnings
Prior outlook: Optimistic Outcome: Missed
Southwest Airlines dropped sharply after the company gave a weaker-than-expected outlook for the next quarter. Investors sold heavily, pushing the price down by about 6%.
LUV price around the earnings
44.71
Change: -6.2%
2026-07-23, 20:00 UTC
Start of the measured window
End of the measured window
44.49
45.60
46.71
47.82
47.66
July 22, 2026
July 23, 2026
- Price: green if it ends above the starting price; red if it ends below
- Start of the measured window
- End of the measured window
- Market open
- No trading (market closed)
- Starting price
Prior thesis
Prior outlook: Optimistic Outcome: Missed
- Thesis published
- Results released
Pre-release: Analysts expect modest revenue growth; stock recovered but shows recent 14d weakness.
Context analyzed before publication
- Trend
- Stock recovered from weakness to a moderate run-up, but 14d trend strength is now negative into earnings.
Analysts
Evidence
- Analyst consensus
- Hold
- Consensus average (1-5)
- 2.56
- Analysts covering the stock
- 23
- Average price target
- 52.36
- Lowest price target
- 32.7
- Highest price target
- 67
- Upside to price target
- 10.1%
- Revenue growth
- 12.8%
- Forward EPS
- 4.88
- Trailing EPS
- 1.5
- Analyst moves in the last 60 days
- 10
- Strong buy: 4
- Buy: 7
- Hold: 9
- Sell: 2
- Strong sell: 3
- Strong buy
- 4
- Buy
- 7
- Hold
- 9
- Sell
- 2
- Strong sell
- 3
- July 7, 2026 · Susquehanna: Maintains rating (Neutral → Neutral)
- July 6, 2026 · Morgan Stanley: Maintains rating (Overweight → Overweight)
- July 6, 2026 · Raymond James: Maintains rating (Outperform → Outperform)
- July 2, 2026 · Goldman Sachs: Maintains rating (Sell → Sell)
- July 2, 2026 · BMO Capital: Maintains rating (Outperform → Outperform)
- July 2, 2026 · TD Cowen: Maintains rating (Buy → Buy)
- July 1, 2026 · B of A Securities: Maintains rating (Underperform → Underperform)
- June 30, 2026 · Wells Fargo: Maintains rating (Equal-Weight → Equal-Weight)
- June 26, 2026 · Citigroup: Maintains rating (Neutral → Neutral)
- June 25, 2026 · Barclays: Maintains rating (Overweight → Overweight)
News and sentiment
Evidence
Sentiment
- Sentiment
- Neutral
- Mention volume
- Low
- Normalized volume
- 33%
News
Sources (6)
- Susquehanna Maintains Neutral on Southwest Airlines, Raises Price Target to $55 (opens in a new tab) — Benzinga
- Morgan Stanley Maintains Overweight on Southwest Airlines, Raises Price Target to $65 (opens in a new tab) — Benzinga
- Raymond James Maintains Outperform on Southwest Airlines, Raises Price Target to $60 (opens in a new tab) — Benzinga
- BMO Capital Maintains Outperform on Southwest Airlines, Raises Price Target to $58.5 (opens in a new tab) — Benzinga
- Goldman Sachs Maintains Sell on Southwest Airlines, Raises Price Target to $35 (opens in a new tab) — Benzinga
- TD Cowen Maintains Buy on Southwest Airlines, Raises Price Target to $53 (opens in a new tab) — Benzinga
Technicals
Evidence
- Average true range (ATR)
- 2.9%
- Distance to 52-week high
- -12.4%
- 14-day change (14d)
- -1.5%
- 30-day change (33d)
- +1.4%
- 30-day relative strength
- +1.2%
- SPY change (33d)
- +0.2%
- Nearest support
- 48.46
- Nearest resistance
- 48.99
- Volume accumulation ratio (14d / 46d)
- 0.76
Trends
Evidence
- Average earnings surprise
- +95.4%
- April 22, 2026: actual EPS 0.45 vs estimate 0.47 (surprise -5.0%)
- January 28, 2026: actual EPS 0.58 vs estimate 0.57 (surprise +1.8%)
- October 22, 2025: actual EPS 0.11 vs estimate -0.04 (surprise +401.0%)
- July 23, 2025: actual EPS 0.43 vs estimate 0.51 (surprise -16.2%)
Expected move
- Implied move
- +5.9%
- Source
- Options chain
Reactions over its last 20 earnings
- Median move
- 3.5%
- 75th percentile move
- 6.2%
- 90th percentile move
- 9.2%
- Up / down moves
- 5 / 15
- Average up move
- +6.5%
- Average down move
- -4.5%
Monitoring and close
What Southwest Airlines Co. reported
- Status
- Pending
| Actual EPS | 0.94 |
|---|---|
| EPS estimate | 0.51 |
| EPS surprise | +84.3% |
| Revenue | $8,432 million |
| Revenue estimate | $8,584 million |
| Revenue surprise | -1.8% |
Sources (1)
- Southwest Airlines reported adjusted earnings of $0.94 per share, beating the $0.51 estimate, but revenue of $8.432B missed the $8.584B estimate. — Benzinga
Pre-market second reading after the results
- Verdict
- Mixed results
Heading into the open, the figures overturn the prior optimistic scenario. In the 713 past cases with a similar move, the close held that direction 86% of the time.
How the stock reacted
- Outcome
- Missed
- Consolidated
- -6.2%
- Max favorable move (MFE)
- 0.3%
- Max adverse move (MAE)
- 6.8%