First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Raises Holdings in SkyWest, Inc. $SKYW

Key Points

• First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. increased its holdings in SkyWest, Inc. by 192% during Q2, totaling 8,282 shares valued at approximately $853,000.
• SkyWest reported earnings of $2.91 per share for the last quarter, surpassing estimates, with a revenue of $1.04 billion, which is a 19.4% increase compared to the previous year.
• SkyWest's stock has an average price target of $126.75 from analysts, reflecting a generally positive outlook with one "Strong Buy," four "Buy," and one "Hold" rating.

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. lifted its holdings in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW - Free Report) by 192.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,282 shares of the transportation company's stock after acquiring an additional 5,446 shares during the period. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.'s holdings in SkyWest were worth $853,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 8.3% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,505,919 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $131,572,000 after acquiring an additional 115,619 shares during the last quarter. SW Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. SW Investment Management LLC now owns 900,000 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $92,673,000 after acquiring an additional 50,000 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 564,732 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $49,341,000 after acquiring an additional 21,723 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of SkyWest in the 1st quarter valued at about $37,474,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 233,175 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $20,372,000 after acquiring an additional 6,574 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.30% of the company's stock.

SkyWest Stock Performance

Shares of SKYW stock opened at $100.35 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.21, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.86. The company's 50 day moving average is $107.50 and its 200 day moving average is $103.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. SkyWest, Inc. has a 52-week low of $74.70 and a 52-week high of $135.57.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The transportation company reported $2.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.57. SkyWest had a net margin of 10.62% and a return on equity of 16.69%. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $979.95 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.82 earnings per share. SkyWest's revenue was up 19.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other SkyWest news, insider Wade J. Steel sold 17,000 shares of SkyWest stock in a transaction 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 transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Eric Woodward sold 7,000 shares of SkyWest stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.67, for a total transaction of $816,690.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 47,810 shares in the company, valued at $5,577,992.70. This represents a 12.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 89,186 shares of company stock valued at $10,440,398. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SKYW has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of SkyWest from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of SkyWest from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Raymond James Financial raised shares of SkyWest from a "moderate buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b-)" rating on shares of SkyWest in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, SkyWest has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $126.75.

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.

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