Short Interest in Allegiant Travel Company (NASDAQ:ALGT) Expands By 21.5%

Allegiant Travel Company (NASDAQ:ALGT) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in January. As of January 30th, there was short interest totaling 2,252,311 shares, an increase of 21.5% from the January 15th total of 1,854,477 shares. Approximately 14.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 452,055 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.0 days. Based on an average trading volume of 452,055 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.0 days. Approximately 14.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Allegiant Travel Stock Performance

Allegiant Travel stock opened at $111.30 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $91.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $73.40. The stock has a market cap of $2.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -43.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.26 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Allegiant Travel has a 1-year low of $39.80 and a 1-year high of $118.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Allegiant Travel

In other news, Chairman Maurice J. Gallagher, Jr. sold 175,000 shares of Allegiant Travel stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.23, for a total value of $19,990,250.00. Following the sale, the chairman directly owned 1,962,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $224,159,012.04. The trade was a 8.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders sold a total of 300,000 shares of company stock valued at $34,350,512 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 14.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Verition Fund Management LLC purchased a new stake in Allegiant Travel in the fourth quarter valued at $222,000. Panagora Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Allegiant Travel during the 4th quarter worth about $1,016,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. purchased a new stake in Allegiant Travel in the 4th quarter valued at about $5,031,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC raised its holdings in Allegiant Travel by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 118,926 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $10,141,000 after buying an additional 2,570 shares during the period. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp acquired a new position in Allegiant Travel in the fourth quarter valued at about $352,000. 85.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ALGT. Evercore raised their price objective on Allegiant Travel from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Allegiant Travel from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Allegiant Travel from $90.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Zacks Research cut shares of Allegiant Travel from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Allegiant Travel from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $95.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.18.

About Allegiant Travel

Allegiant Travel Company is a holding company that operates Allegiant Air, a low‐cost leisure airline offering scheduled and charter air service. The company focuses on connecting underserved secondary markets with popular vacation destinations across the United States. By targeting price‐sensitive leisure travelers, Allegiant Air operates a point‐to‐point network that avoids the traditional hub‐and‐spoke model, providing non‐stop flights from smaller cities to resort and entertainment hubs.

In addition to its core flight operations, Allegiant Travel Company offers packaged travel services that include hotel accommodations, rental cars and attraction tickets through its online portal.