SG Americas Securities LLC Takes $1.01 Million Position in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW)

SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 11,522 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,007,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Savant Capital LLC purchased a new stake in SkyWest in the 4th quarter worth approximately $242,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 193.5% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 863 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $87,000 after purchasing an additional 569 shares during the period. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. bought a new position in shares of SkyWest in the fourth quarter worth $254,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of SkyWest in the fourth quarter worth $23,851,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in SkyWest by 16.9% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 90,487 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $9,060,000 after buying an additional 13,077 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on SKYW shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded SkyWest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Raymond James Financial dropped their price target on SkyWest from $130.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of SkyWest from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $119.00 to $117.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th.

SkyWest Stock Performance

NASDAQ SKYW opened at $96.43 on Wednesday. SkyWest, Inc. has a 52-week low of $64.61 and a 52-week high of $135.57. The company has a fifty day moving average of $95.55 and a 200-day moving average of $99.61. The company has a market capitalization of $3.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.76.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The transportation company reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04 by $0.38. SkyWest had a return on equity of 15.41% and a net margin of 9.89%. The business had revenue of $948.46 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $946.13 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.45 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SkyWest declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, May 7th that authorizes the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the transportation company to buy up to 6.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at SkyWest

In other news, CEO Russell A. Childs sold 17,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.91, for a total value of $1,715,470.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 449,242 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,333,010.22. This represents a 3.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Wade J. Steel sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.02, for a total transaction of $1,515,300.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 119,416 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,063,404.32. This represents a 11.16% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 49,000 shares of company stock valued at $4,994,520. Corporate insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

SkyWest Company Profile

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.