17,500 Shares in SkyWest, Inc. $SKYW Purchased by VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new stake in shares of SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 17,500 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,738,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SKYW. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of SkyWest during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $682,530,000. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 7,138.9% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 1,177,259 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $116,937,000 after purchasing an additional 1,160,996 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in shares of SkyWest in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,177,000. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 27.5% during the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,184,956 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $118,981,000 after acquiring an additional 255,408 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in SkyWest during the second quarter worth about $24,254,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SKYW has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. TD Cowen upped their price objective on SkyWest from $115.00 to $123.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 24th. Citigroup raised their target price on SkyWest from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded SkyWest from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $126.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded SkyWest from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, SkyWest has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $121.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at SkyWest

In related news, CEO Russell A. Childs sold 50,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.21, for a total transaction of $5,717,105.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 346,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,192,169.90. This represents a 12.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Wade J. Steel sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.44, for a total transaction of $2,451,680.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 55,438 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,178,010.72. This trade represents a 28.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 115,226 shares of company stock worth $12,855,192 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

SkyWest Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ SKYW opened at $96.14 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.73 billion, a PE ratio of 9.56, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.42. SkyWest, Inc. has a twelve month low of $77.89 and a twelve month high of $117.72. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $102.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $95.01.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The transportation company reported $2.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.70 by ($0.16). The firm had revenue of $1.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.11 billion. SkyWest had a net margin of 9.78% and a return on equity of 14.58%. The business’s revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.91 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that SkyWest, Inc. will post 10.64 earnings per share for the current year.

SkyWest announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, July 23rd that authorizes the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the transportation company to repurchase up to 6.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

SkyWest Company Profile

SkyWest, Inc is a regional airline holding company headquartered in St. George, Utah. Through its subsidiaries, the company provides scheduled passenger air service for major U.S. airline partners, connecting smaller communities with larger hub airports.

SkyWest Airlines operates flights under capacity purchase agreements with Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. Its fleet primarily consists of regional aircraft, including Embraer E175 and Bombardier CRJ models, and serves destinations throughout the United States as well as selected locations in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

SkyWest also operates SkyWest Charter, which provides public charter air transportation.