SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) Shares Sold by New York State Teachers Retirement System

New York State Teachers Retirement System lowered its stake in shares of SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) by 23.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 59,906 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 18,394 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in SkyWest were worth $3,127,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SKYW. Swiss National Bank boosted its position in SkyWest by 7.6% in the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 29,800 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $860,000 after buying an additional 2,100 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in SkyWest by 39.5% in the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,911 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $112,000 after buying an additional 1,107 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its position in SkyWest by 49.9% in the first quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 15,968 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $460,000 after buying an additional 5,318 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. boosted its position in SkyWest by 7.6% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 74,418 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $2,147,000 after buying an additional 5,243 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its position in SkyWest by 56.8% in the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 26,137 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $754,000 after buying an additional 9,464 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.30% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at SkyWest

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 value of $133,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 56,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,740,790.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

SkyWest Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of SKYW stock opened at $66.90 on Tuesday. 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 cap of $2.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 76.90 and a beta of 1.95. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $65.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $53.34. SkyWest, Inc. has a 1-year low of $23.37 and a 1-year high of $71.15.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The transportation company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $751.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $758.41 million. SkyWest had a return on equity of 1.59% and a net margin of 1.17%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.93) EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that SkyWest, Inc. will post 6.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.