AQR Capital Management LLC Purchases 17,332 Shares of SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW)

AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW - Free Report) by 18.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 110,995 shares of the transportation company's stock after purchasing an additional 17,332 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC owned 0.28% of SkyWest worth $11,114,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of SKYW. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in SkyWest by 3.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 357,510 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $30,396,000 after buying an additional 11,169 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in SkyWest by 563.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 152,940 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $13,002,000 after purchasing an additional 129,901 shares in the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC bought a new stake in SkyWest in the fourth quarter valued at $242,000. Tidal Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of SkyWest during the 3rd quarter worth about $648,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of SkyWest by 193.5% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 863 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $87,000 after acquiring an additional 569 shares during the last quarter. 81.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other SkyWest news, VP Greg Wooley sold 14,545 shares of the business'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 transaction of $1,537,842.85. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 68,737 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,267,563.01. The trade was a 17.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Robert J. Simmons sold 6,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.57, for a total value of $681,420.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 175,067 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $19,882,359.19. The trade was a 3.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on SKYW shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of SkyWest from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $119.00 to $117.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. StockNews.com raised shares of SkyWest from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Raymond James decreased their target price on SkyWest from $130.00 to $125.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd.

SkyWest Stock Down 0.5 %

SKYW traded down $0.49 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $99.54. 262,858 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 394,951. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. SkyWest, Inc. has a 1-year low of $64.61 and a 1-year high of $135.57. The stock's 50-day moving average is $88.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $100.72. The stock has a market cap of $4.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.81 and a beta of 1.88.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The transportation company reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $948.46 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $946.13 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.45 EPS. SkyWest's revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SkyWest announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, May 7th that authorizes the company to buyback $250.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the transportation company to repurchase up to 6.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

SkyWest 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.