Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Has $1.98 Million Holdings in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW)

Key Points

• Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in SkyWest, Inc. by 18.2% in Q1, retaining 22,693 shares valued at approximately $1.98 million.
• Analysts have recently upgraded SkyWest's rating from "hold" to "buy," with a consensus target price of $124.25.
• SkyWest reported a substantial increase in revenue of 19.4% year-over-year, totaling $1.04 billion for the last quarter, surpassing analyst expectations.

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW - Free Report) by 18.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,693 shares of the transportation company's stock after selling 5,056 shares during the quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC owned 0.06% of SkyWest worth $1,983,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of SKYW. Assetmark Inc. grew its position in shares of SkyWest by 10.8% during the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 21,311 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $1,862,000 after purchasing an additional 2,077 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in shares of SkyWest by 2.3% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 26,002 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $2,272,000 after buying an additional 582 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP grew its position in SkyWest by 25.8% during the first quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 25,692 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $2,245,000 after buying an additional 5,269 shares in the last quarter. Triumph Capital Management increased its stake in SkyWest by 10.3% during the 1st quarter. Triumph Capital Management now owns 4,126 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $360,000 after acquiring an additional 384 shares during the period. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in SkyWest during the 1st quarter worth $1,457,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.30% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on SKYW. Wall Street Zen upgraded SkyWest from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Raymond James Financial upped their price objective on shares of SkyWest from $128.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday. Evercore ISI upgraded 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of SkyWest from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $119.00 to $117.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $124.25.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Russell A. Childs sold 17,000 shares of SkyWest stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.91, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 3.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Robert J. Simmons sold 17,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.75, for a total transaction of $1,763,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 131,203 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $13,612,311.25. The trade was a 11.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 49,000 shares of company stock worth $4,994,520. Corporate insiders own 2.00% of the company's stock.

SkyWest Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of SKYW opened at $112.30 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.76. SkyWest, Inc. has a 52-week low of $64.61 and a 52-week high of $135.57. The firm has a market cap of $4.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.42, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.88. The business's fifty day moving average is $103.98 and its 200-day moving average is $99.91.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The transportation company reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.57. SkyWest had a return on equity of 17.01% and a net margin of 10.62%. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $979.95 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.82 earnings per share. SkyWest's revenue was up 19.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SkyWest announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, May 7th that permits the company to buyback $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the transportation company to reacquire up to 6.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication 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.

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