SkyWest, Inc. $SKYW Shares Purchased by Russell Investments Group Ltd.

Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its position in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) by 57.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 42,886 shares of the transportation company’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,701 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in SkyWest were worth $3,747,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in SkyWest by 4.0% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 564,732 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $49,341,000 after purchasing an additional 21,723 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in SkyWest by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 472,763 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $47,338,000 after purchasing an additional 51,607 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in SkyWest in the first quarter valued at about $37,474,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its position in SkyWest by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 415,296 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $41,584,000 after purchasing an additional 57,547 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in SkyWest by 2.9% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 233,175 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $20,372,000 after purchasing an additional 6,574 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of SkyWest from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Raymond James Financial raised their price objective on shares of SkyWest from $128.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of SkyWest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $126.75.

SkyWest Trading Up 4.0%

Shares of SKYW opened at $119.08 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.63. SkyWest, Inc. has a 1-year low of $72.70 and a 1-year high of $135.57. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $109.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $100.08.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The transportation company reported $2.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.57. The firm had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $979.95 million. SkyWest had a net margin of 10.62% and a return on equity of 16.69%. SkyWest’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.82 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SkyWest announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, May 7th that permits the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the transportation company to repurchase up to 6.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at SkyWest

In other SkyWest news, insider Wade J. Steel sold 17,000 shares of SkyWest stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.26, for a total value of $2,010,420.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 102,416 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,111,716.16. The trade was a 14.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Robert J. Simmons sold 17,186 shares of SkyWest stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.46, for a total transaction of $2,018,667.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 114,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,392,436.82. The trade was a 13.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 138,186 shares of company stock worth $15,434,918 in the last three months. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.