SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) Shares Up 6% on Strong Earnings

SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW)’s stock price traded up 6% on Friday following a stronger than expected earnings report. The company traded as high as $78.79 and last traded at $77.50. 101,278 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 79% from the average session volume of 475,824 shares. The stock had previously closed at $73.14.

The transportation company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.24 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $804.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $800.07 million. SkyWest had a return on equity of 1.59% and a net margin of 1.17%. The company’s revenue was up 16.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.45) EPS.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on SKYW. Evercore ISI raised their target price on SkyWest from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. TD Cowen raised SkyWest from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, February 5th. TheStreet raised SkyWest from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. StockNews.com raised SkyWest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, Raymond James raised their target price on SkyWest from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $62.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director James L. Welch sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.72, for a total transaction of $133,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 56,067 shares in the company, valued at $3,740,790.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of SkyWest

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in SkyWest by 16.4% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 721,053 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $30,241,000 after buying an additional 101,459 shares in the last quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP bought a new position in SkyWest during the third quarter valued at about $833,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund bought a new position in SkyWest during the third quarter valued at about $1,115,000. Capula Management Ltd bought a new position in SkyWest during the third quarter valued at about $1,058,000. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in SkyWest by 5,203.4% during the third quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 256,631 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $10,763,000 after buying an additional 251,792 shares in the last quarter. 81.30% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

SkyWest Trading Up 6.9 %

The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $66.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $54.77. 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 $3.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 89.84 and a beta of 1.95.

About SkyWest

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.