SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Raymond James Analyst Says

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) had its price objective raised by equities research analysts at Raymond James from $114.00 to $120.00 in a research report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the transportation company’s stock. Raymond James’ price target would suggest a potential upside of 18.51% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $119.00 price objective on shares of SkyWest in a research report on Friday, November 15th. TD Cowen upped their target price on SkyWest from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $107.25.

SkyWest Price Performance

Shares of SkyWest stock opened at $101.26 on Monday. SkyWest has a 52 week low of $48.28 and a 52 week high of $117.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market cap of $4.08 billion, a PE ratio of 17.31 and a beta of 1.96. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $106.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $89.40.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Eric Woodward sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.53, for a total value of $446,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 44,426 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,954,831.78. This represents a 8.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Wade J. Steel sold 19,079 shares of the firm’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 owns 97,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,202,889.92. This represents a 16.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 92,467 shares of company stock worth $10,082,596. Corporate insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SKYW. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 357,510 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $30,396,000 after acquiring an additional 11,169 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in SkyWest by 9.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 216,574 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $18,413,000 after purchasing an additional 18,047 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC purchased a new position in SkyWest in the third quarter valued at about $648,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in SkyWest in the 3rd quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of SkyWest during the 3rd quarter worth about $233,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.