SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) Stake Lessened by Acuitas Investments LLC

Acuitas Investments LLC cut its stake in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) by 40.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 31,968 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 22,038 shares during the period. Acuitas Investments LLC’s holdings in SkyWest were worth $1,669,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in SKYW. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in SkyWest during the third quarter worth approximately $900,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB purchased a new stake in shares of SkyWest in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $201,000. Bailard Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of SkyWest in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $386,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of SkyWest by 14.5% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,851 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $120,000 after acquiring an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas purchased a new stake in shares of SkyWest in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $294,000. 81.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on SKYW shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of SkyWest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of SkyWest from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. TheStreet upgraded shares of SkyWest from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of SkyWest from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of SkyWest from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $55.00 to $68.00 in a report on Monday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $62.25.

Insider Transactions at SkyWest

In other news, Director James L. Welch sold 2,000 shares of SkyWest stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.72, for a total transaction of $133,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 56,067 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,740,790.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 2.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

SkyWest Price Performance

SKYW stock traded up $4.34 during trading on Friday, hitting $77.48. 279,204 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 478,074. SkyWest, Inc. has a one year low of $23.59 and a one year high of $79.21. The stock has a market cap of $3.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.84 and a beta of 1.95. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $66.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $54.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The transportation company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.24 by $0.21. SkyWest had a net margin of 1.17% and a return on equity of 1.59%. The company had revenue of $804.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $800.07 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.45) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 16.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that SkyWest, Inc. will post 6.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.