SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the four ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $105.75.

A number of research firms recently commented on SKYW. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $119.00 target price on shares of SkyWest in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Raymond James boosted their target price on SkyWest from $100.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price objective on SkyWest from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th.

SkyWest Price Performance

Shares of SkyWest stock opened at $106.60 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $103.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $87.52. SkyWest has a 52 week low of $48.28 and a 52 week high of $117.51. The company has a market capitalization of $4.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.22 and a beta of 1.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The transportation company reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.92 by $0.24. SkyWest had a return on equity of 11.02% and a net margin of 7.29%. The business had revenue of $912.79 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $896.21 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.55 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 19.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that SkyWest will post 7.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Russell A. Childs sold 27,903 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.47, for a total value of $3,110,347.41. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 349,548 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,964,115.56. The trade was a 7.39 % 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, Director Ronald J. Mittelstaedt sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.06, for a total value of $2,801,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 11,283 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,264,372.98. The trade was a 68.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 92,467 shares of company stock valued at $10,082,596. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of SkyWest

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 1,368.0% in the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 367 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 342 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in SkyWest during the third quarter worth $31,000. Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new stake in SkyWest during the second quarter worth $42,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new stake in SkyWest during the second quarter worth $54,000. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its holdings in SkyWest by 57.3% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 766 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 279 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.