Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Sells 2,975 Shares of SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW)

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. lessened its position in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW - Free Report) by 10.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 26,293 shares of the transportation company's stock after selling 2,975 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. owned 0.06% of SkyWest worth $2,297,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in shares of SkyWest by 117.2% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 832 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $83,000 after buying an additional 449 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of SkyWest in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,700,000. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its stake in shares of SkyWest by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 6,938 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $695,000 after buying an additional 753 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of SkyWest by 15.5% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 3,270 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $327,000 after buying an additional 438 shares during the period. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in shares of SkyWest by 60.7% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 12,766 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $1,278,000 after buying an additional 4,824 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.30% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other SkyWest news, insider Wade J. Steel sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.02, for a total value of $1,515,300.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 119,416 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,063,404.32. This represents a 11.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible 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 stock was sold at an average price of $103.75, for a total value of $1,763,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 131,203 shares in the company, 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. Over the last quarter, 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 Down 1.6%

NASDAQ SKYW traded down $1.85 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $111.76. 339,844 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 382,970. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $101.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $99.26. SkyWest, Inc. has a 1-year low of $64.61 and a 1-year high of $135.57. The firm has a market cap of $4.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.79, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.88. 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 (NASDAQ:SKYW - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $948.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $946.13 million. SkyWest had a return on equity of 15.41% and a net margin of 9.89%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.45 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SkyWest declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, May 7th that allows the company to buyback $250.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the transportation company to purchase up to 6.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.