SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) Receives “Neutral” Rating from The Goldman Sachs Group

The Goldman Sachs Group restated their neutral rating on shares of SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) in a report released on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a $119.00 price target on the transportation company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on SKYW. TD Cowen upped their price objective on SkyWest from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of SkyWest from $100.00 to $114.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, SkyWest presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $105.75.

SkyWest Price Performance

SKYW traded up $0.52 during trading on Friday, hitting $111.33. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 316,732 shares, compared to its average volume of 406,282. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $90.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $82.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.03 and a beta of 1.93. SkyWest has a 12 month low of $44.71 and a 12 month high of $116.47.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $912.79 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $896.21 million. SkyWest had a return on equity of 11.02% and a net margin of 7.29%. The company’s revenue was up 19.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.55 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that SkyWest will post 7.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Eric Woodward sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.53, for a total transaction of $446,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Russell A. Childs sold 27,903 shares of SkyWest stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were 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 directly owns 349,548 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,964,115.56. This represents a 7.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 92,467 shares of company stock valued at $10,082,596. 2.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SkyWest

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in SkyWest by 2.3% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,252,410 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $184,855,000 after acquiring an additional 51,180 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in SkyWest by 16.8% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,151,578 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $94,510,000 after purchasing an additional 165,670 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in SkyWest by 0.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 960,739 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $81,697,000 after buying an additional 6,542 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in SkyWest by 12.5% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 682,794 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $58,051,000 after buying an additional 76,007 shares during the period. Finally, SW Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in SkyWest by 13.2% during the 2nd quarter. SW Investment Management LLC now owns 600,000 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $49,242,000 after purchasing an additional 70,000 shares during the last quarter. 81.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.