NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Southwest Airlines were falling 1.5% to $40.17 Monday after the airline reported its December traffic numbers. Southwest flew 9.2 billion revenue passenger miles in December 2014, up from 9 billion RPMs in December 2013. The company said that traffic increased 2.8% in December 2014 compared to December 2013, and load capacity increased 2.9%. The airline's reported a load factor of 82.7% for the month, down from 82.8% in December 2013. Exclusive Report: Jim Cramer's Best Stocks for 2015 STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more. The airline said that passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) fell between 4% and 5% in December compared to the year-ago month. Southwest estimated that PRASM increased between 1% and 2% for the fourth quarter, however. TheStreet Ratings team rates SOUTHWEST AIRLINES as a Buy with a ratings score of A+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate SOUTHWEST AIRLINES (LUV) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its impressive record of earnings per share growth, compelling growth in net income, revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and notable return on equity. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows weak operating cash flow." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: SOUTHWEST AIRLINES has improved earnings per share by 29.7% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES increased its bottom line by earning $1.06 versus $0.56 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($1.96 versus $1.06). The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the S&P 500 and greatly outperformed compared to the Airlines industry average. The net income increased by 27.0% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from $259.00 million to $329.00 million. LUV's revenue growth trails the industry average of 30.2%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 5.6%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share. The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.37, is low and is below the industry average, implying that there has been successful management of debt levels. Despite the fact that LUV's debt-to-equity ratio is low, the quick ratio, which is currently 0.62, displays a potential problem in covering short-term cash needs. Current return on equity exceeded its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a clear sign of strength within the company. Compared to other companies in the Airlines industry and the overall market on the basis of return on equity, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES has underperformed in comparison with the industry average, but has exceeded that of the S&P 500. You can view the full analysis from the report here: LUV Ratings Report STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.
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