Southwest tops Street 3Q forecasts

Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) on Wednesday reported third-quarter earnings of $388 million.

On a per-share basis, the Dallas-based company said it had net income of 62 cents. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, were 93 cents per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 87 cents per share.

The airline posted revenue of $5.14 billion in the period, also exceeding Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $5.13 billion.

Southwest shares have decreased nearly 3 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has risen nearly 5 percent. The stock has fallen slightly more than 8 percent in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on LUV at http://www.zacks.com/ap/LUV

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Keywords: Southwest Airlines, Earnings Report, Priority Earnings