Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. LUV shed 2.4% in premarket trading Thursday, after the air carrier reported a much wider-than-expected fourth-quarter loss, and warned of another loss in the current quarter, while apologizing for the “operational disruptions” during the holiday travel season. The company swung to a net loss of $220 million, or 37 cents a share, from net income of $68 million, or 11 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, the adjusted per-share loss of 38 cents compared with the FactSet loss consensus of 7 cents. Revenue grew 22.2% to $6.17 billion, but missed the FactSet consensus of $6.22 billion. Load factor improved to 83.5% from 83.1% but came up short of expectations of 84.9%. The company said it currently expects to report a first-quarter loss, while the FactSet consensus was for earnings per share of 19 cents, but said it was “encouraged” by current booking trends in march. Separately, as the company faced a government probe into its scheduling that caused the holiday meltdown last month, Southwest said it established an committee to oversee the company’s response. The stock has gained 7.3% over the past three months through Wednesday while the U.S. Global Jets ETF JETS has soared 18.5% and the S&P 500 SPX has gained 4.9%.
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