Ameriprise Financial Inc. Boosts Stock Position in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW)

Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) by 4.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 147,412 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 6,085 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned 0.37% of SkyWest worth $14,760,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC lifted its position in shares of SkyWest by 563.8% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 152,940 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $13,002,000 after buying an additional 129,901 shares during the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of SkyWest during the 4th quarter valued at $242,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of SkyWest by 193.5% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 863 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $87,000 after buying an additional 569 shares during the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of SkyWest during the 4th quarter valued at $275,000. Finally, Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. lifted its position in shares of SkyWest by 172.3% during the 4th quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 29,268 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $2,931,000 after buying an additional 18,520 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on SKYW shares. Raymond James dropped their price target on SkyWest from $130.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com raised SkyWest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised SkyWest from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $119.00 to $117.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 8th.

SkyWest Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SKYW opened at $102.67 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.21 and a beta of 1.88. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $89.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $101.07. SkyWest, Inc. has a twelve month low of $64.61 and a twelve month high of $135.57.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The transportation company reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04 by $0.38. The business had revenue of $948.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $946.13 million. SkyWest had a return on equity of 14.17% and a net margin of 9.15%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.45 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SkyWest declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, May 7th that allows the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the transportation company to purchase up to 6.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other SkyWest news, VP Greg Wooley sold 14,545 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.73, for a total value of $1,537,842.85. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 68,737 shares in the company, valued at $7,267,563.01. This represents a 17.46% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

SkyWest 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.