SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) Shares Sold by Bank of New York Mellon Corp

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lessened its stake in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW - Free Report) by 7.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 419,671 shares of the transportation company's stock after selling 33,520 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned 1.03% of SkyWest worth $36,667,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Financial Management Professionals Inc. purchased a new position in shares of SkyWest in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in SkyWest in the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in SkyWest in the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in SkyWest in the 4th quarter valued at about $45,000. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in SkyWest by 117.2% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 832 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $83,000 after acquiring an additional 449 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.30% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of SkyWest from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $119.00 to $117.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of SkyWest from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Raymond James Financial lowered their price objective on shares of SkyWest from $130.00 to $125.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of SkyWest from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $120.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 1st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, SkyWest presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $120.50.

SkyWest Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of SkyWest stock traded down $0.57 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $113.94. 161,524 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 381,645. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $102.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $99.53. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. SkyWest, Inc. has a twelve month low of $64.61 and a twelve month high of $135.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.88.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The transportation company reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.38. SkyWest had a net margin of 9.89% and a return on equity of 15.41%. The business had revenue of $948.46 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $946.13 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.45 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current year.

SkyWest declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, May 7th that allows the company to buyback $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the transportation company to purchase up to 6.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Russell A. Childs sold 17,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.91, for a total value of $1,715,470.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 449,242 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,333,010.22. This trade represents a 3.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Wade J. Steel sold 15,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.02, for a total transaction of $1,515,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 119,416 shares in the company, valued at $12,063,404.32. This represents a 11.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 49,000 shares of company stock valued at $4,994,520. Insiders own 2.00% 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.