Vontobel Holding Ltd. Acquires New Holdings in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. purchased a new stake in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 2,387 shares of the transportation company's stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of SkyWest by 1,075.6% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 60,181 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $5,302,000 after acquiring an additional 55,062 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in shares of SkyWest by 5.9% in the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 3,322 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $290,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of SkyWest by 11.5% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,741 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $152,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in SkyWest during the first quarter worth about $1,007,000. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in SkyWest during the fourth quarter worth about $23,851,000. 81.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of SkyWest from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $119.00 to $117.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Raymond James Financial reduced 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. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of SkyWest from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Finally, 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. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $120.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Robert J. Simmons sold 17,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.75, for a total value of $1,763,750.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 131,203 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,612,311.25. This trade represents a 11.47% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 transaction of $1,715,470.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer 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 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 Price Performance

Shares of SKYW traded down $1.85 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $111.76. The company had a trading volume of 339,844 shares, compared to its average volume of 383,499. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $101.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $99.23. SkyWest, Inc. has a 1-year low of $64.61 and a 1-year high of $135.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.76. The company has a market capitalization of $4.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.88.

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

SkyWest declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, May 7th that allows the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the transportation company to buy up to 6.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company's board of directors believes its shares are 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.