Southwest Airlines to post a profit for Q3?

Posted Oct 14th 2009 4:45PM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Southwest Airlines (LUV)

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV), the Dallas-based low-cost air carrier, is scheduled to discuss its third quarter 2009 financial results in a conference call Thursday at 11:30 AM ET hosted by CEO Gary Kelly and CFO Laura Wright. You can catch the live webcast on the company's website.

During the three months that ended in September, Southwest began service to Boston Logan, prepared a bid to acquire Frontier Airlines, and declared its 132nd consecutive quarterly dividend. But analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report that earnings fell from 9 cents per share a year ago to a penny per share. Sales for the quarter are expected to be 9.7% lower to $2.6 billion.

So far, the full-year forecast is for $0.07 per share (-82.5%) on $10.1 billion (-8.1%). Southwest has topped earnings expectations in four of the past five quarters, by as much as 4 cents per share. But Zacks expects a narrow third-quarter loss due to fuel-related charges.

The long-term EPS growth forecast is 10.0%, which is less than that of competitors JetBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ: JBLU) and Continental Airlines Inc. (NYSE: CAL). The First Call consensus recommendation remains to hold LUV.

Southwest shares have risen about 42% in the past three months, but they are still about 20% lower than a year ago.

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Tags: CAL, Continental Airlines, earnings, Frontier Airlines, inthenews, JBLU, JetBlue, LUV, Soutwest Airlines