Ameriprise Financial Inc. Purchases 6,085 Shares of SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW)

Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) by 4.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 147,412 shares of the transportation company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,085 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc.’s holdings in SkyWest were worth $14,760,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Algert Global LLC bought a new position in shares of SkyWest during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,824,000. Comerica Bank boosted its holdings in SkyWest by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 14,786 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,481,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares during the period. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in SkyWest by 34.4% during the 4th quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 11,610 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,163,000 after acquiring an additional 2,970 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in SkyWest by 18.5% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 110,995 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $11,114,000 after acquiring an additional 17,332 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in SkyWest by 12.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 472,763 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $47,338,000 after acquiring an additional 51,607 shares during the period. 81.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Greg Wooley sold 14,545 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.73, for a total value of $1,537,842.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 68,737 shares in the company, valued at $7,267,563.01. This trade represents a 17.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

SkyWest Trading Up 0.9%

NASDAQ SKYW opened at $102.67 on Friday. SkyWest, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $64.61 and a fifty-two week high of $135.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.78. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $89.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $101.07. The stock has a market cap of $4.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.21 and a beta of 1.88.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The transportation company reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.38. SkyWest had a return on equity of 14.17% and a net margin of 9.15%. The business had revenue of $948.46 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $946.13 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.45 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

SkyWest declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, May 7th that authorizes the company to buyback $250.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the transportation company to reacquire up to 6.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James dropped their target price on SkyWest from $130.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded SkyWest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded SkyWest from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $119.00 to $117.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 8th.

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.