Picton Mahoney Asset Management Raises Stake in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW)

Picton Mahoney Asset Management increased its stake in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) by 16.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,224 shares of the transportation company’s stock after purchasing an additional 736 shares during the quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management’s holdings in SkyWest were worth $524,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in SKYW. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in SkyWest in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Private Trust Co. NA grew its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 157.1% in the 4th quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 491 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Sound Income Strategies LLC purchased a new position in SkyWest in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its holdings in SkyWest by 117.2% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 832 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 449 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in SkyWest by 193.5% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 863 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $87,000 after purchasing an additional 569 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $130.00 price target (up previously from $120.00) on shares of SkyWest in a research report on Friday, January 31st.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Greg Wooley sold 14,545 shares of SkyWest stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.73, for a total transaction of $1,537,842.85. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 68,737 shares in the company, valued at $7,267,563.01. The trade was a 17.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Robert J. Simmons sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.57, for a total transaction of $681,420.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 175,067 shares in the company, valued at $19,882,359.19. The trade was a 3.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

SkyWest Trading Up 4.1 %

Shares of SKYW opened at $87.33 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.68. SkyWest, Inc. has a 1-year low of $64.30 and a 1-year high of $135.57. The stock has a market cap of $3.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.24 and a beta of 2.00. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $105.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $99.55.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The transportation company reported $2.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.59. SkyWest had a return on equity of 14.17% and a net margin of 9.15%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.42 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.