SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) Short Interest Up 22.4% in March

SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW - Get Free Report) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,130,000 shares, a growth of 22.4% from the March 15th total of 1,740,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 492,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.3 days. Approximately 5.4% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling at SkyWest

In other SkyWest news, Director James L. Welch sold 2,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.72, for a total value of $133,440.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 56,067 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,740,790.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 2.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of SkyWest

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SKYW. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of SkyWest in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new position in SkyWest during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Strs Ohio bought a new position in shares of SkyWest in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Transcendent Capital Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of SkyWest in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $52,000. Finally, UBS Group AG boosted its stake in shares of SkyWest by 35.0% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,199 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 829 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.30% of the company's stock.

SkyWest Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of SkyWest stock traded down $1.17 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $67.72. The company's stock had a trading volume of 278,205 shares, compared to its average volume of 572,906. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a market capitalization of $2.73 billion, a PE ratio of 77.84 and a beta of 1.95. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $64.87 and a 200 day moving average of $53.09. SkyWest has a 12 month low of $23.24 and a 12 month high of $71.15.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The transportation company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $751.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $758.41 million. SkyWest had a net margin of 1.17% and a return on equity of 1.59%. SkyWest's quarterly revenue was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.93) EPS. Analysts predict that SkyWest will post 6.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on SKYW shares. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on SkyWest from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of SkyWest from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. TD Cowen raised SkyWest from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $55.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Raymond James increased their price objective on SkyWest from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of SkyWest from a "c" rating to a "b-" rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, SkyWest presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $62.25.

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.