SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) Earns “Outperform” Rating from Raymond James

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at Raymond James in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $130.00 price target on the transportation company’s stock, up from their previous price target of $120.00. Raymond James’ target price points to a potential upside of 7.51% from the stock’s previous close.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $119.00 price target on shares of SkyWest in a research note on Friday, November 15th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of SkyWest from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, SkyWest presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $109.75.

SkyWest Stock Performance

Shares of SKYW stock opened at $120.92 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.67 and a beta of 1.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.86. SkyWest has a 52 week low of $52.78 and a 52 week high of $135.57. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $108.91 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $94.27.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The transportation company reported $2.34 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.59. SkyWest had a net margin of 7.29% and a return on equity of 11.02%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.42 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that SkyWest will post 7.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Russell A. Childs sold 27,903 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.47, for a total transaction of $3,110,347.41. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 349,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,964,115.56. This represents a 7.39 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Wade J. Steel sold 19,079 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.48, for a total transaction of $1,993,373.92. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 97,654 shares in the company, valued at $10,202,889.92. This trade represents a 16.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 92,467 shares of company stock valued at $10,082,596. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SkyWest

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SKYW. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 42.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 484,147 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $41,162,000 after buying an additional 143,661 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 563.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 152,940 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $13,002,000 after buying an additional 129,901 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 12.5% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 682,794 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $58,051,000 after buying an additional 76,007 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 64.0% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 63,710 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $5,229,000 after buying an additional 24,874 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. increased its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 50.8% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 61,565 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $5,234,000 after buying an additional 20,752 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.30% of the company’s stock.

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.