SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Monday morning.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of SkyWest from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $119.00 to $117.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Raymond James dropped their target price on SkyWest from $130.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd.

SkyWest Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SKYW opened at $94.39 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $88.17 and a 200 day moving average of $100.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The company has a market capitalization of $3.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.15 and a beta of 1.83. SkyWest has a 52 week low of $64.61 and a 52 week high of $135.57.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The transportation company reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.38. SkyWest had a return on equity of 14.17% and a net margin of 9.15%. The firm had revenue of $948.46 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $946.13 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.45 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that SkyWest will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Greg Wooley sold 14,545 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.73, for a total value of $1,537,842.85. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 68,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,267,563.01. This represents a 17.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Robert J. Simmons sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.57, for a total value of $681,420.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 175,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,882,359.19. The trade was a 3.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of SkyWest

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in SKYW. Financial Management Professionals Inc. purchased a new position in shares of SkyWest during the first quarter worth $27,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of SkyWest during the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of SkyWest in the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of SkyWest in the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of SkyWest in the fourth quarter worth about $45,000. 81.30% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About SkyWest

SkyWest, Inc is the holding company for two scheduled passenger airline operations and an aircraft leasing company. SkyWest’s airline companies provide commercial air service in cities throughout North America with nearly 3,000 daily flights carrying more than 53 million passengers annually. SkyWest Airlines operates through partnerships with United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.