Vanguard Group Inc. Lowers Position in SkyWest, Inc. $SKYW

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. reduced its holdings in SkyWest, Inc. by 0.9%, selling 41,239 shares and owning approximately 11.80% of the company valued at $417.35 million.
• Insiders have recently sold a total of 136,186 shares of SkyWest stock, totaling $15,201,258 over the last 90 days, indicating notable insider trading activity.
• SkyWest's stock received a buy rating from Wall Street analysts, with five analysts rating it as a buy and an average price target of $126.75.

Vanguard Group Inc. cut its stake in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW - Free Report) by 0.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,776,846 shares of the transportation company's stock after selling 41,239 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 11.80% of SkyWest worth $417,353,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 12.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 472,763 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $47,338,000 after buying an additional 51,607 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 415,296 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $41,584,000 after buying an additional 57,547 shares in the last quarter. Oberweis Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Oberweis Asset Management Inc. now owns 319,150 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $31,956,000 after buying an additional 41,500 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 233,175 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $20,372,000 after buying an additional 6,574 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 170,405 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $17,062,000 after buying an additional 17,465 shares in the last quarter. 81.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at SkyWest

In other news, insider Wade J. Steel sold 17,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.26, for a total value of $2,010,420.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 102,416 shares of the company's stock, valued at $12,111,716.16. This represents a 14.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Russell A. Childs sold 26,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.06, for a total value of $3,017,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 404,883 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $46,990,720.98. This trade represents a 6.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 136,186 shares of company stock worth $15,201,258 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.20% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages 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. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on SkyWest from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Raymond James Financial boosted their price objective on SkyWest from $128.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, SkyWest has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $126.75.

SkyWest Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ SKYW traded down $0.7250 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $116.7150. The company had a trading volume of 84,562 shares, compared to its average volume of 400,255. The company's fifty day moving average price is $108.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $99.90. SkyWest, Inc. has a 12 month low of $72.55 and a 12 month high of $135.57. The stock has a market cap of $4.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.87, a PEG ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.98. 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 (NASDAQ:SKYW - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The transportation company reported $2.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.57. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $979.95 million. SkyWest had a return on equity of 16.69% and a net margin of 10.62%.The firm's revenue was up 19.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.82 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

SkyWest declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, May 7th that permits the company to buyback $250.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits 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 management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.