D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. Sells 26,210 Shares of SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW)

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. decreased its position in shares of SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) by 84.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,653 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 26,210 shares during the quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc.’s holdings in SkyWest were worth $466,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC boosted its position in SkyWest by 563.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 152,940 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $13,002,000 after purchasing an additional 129,901 shares in the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of SkyWest during the fourth quarter valued at about $242,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 193.5% in 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 in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of SkyWest in the 4th quarter valued at about $275,000. Finally, Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. grew its position in shares of SkyWest by 172.3% in the 4th quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 29,268 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,931,000 after buying an additional 18,520 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.30% of the company’s stock.

SkyWest Trading Down 0.7%

NASDAQ SKYW opened at $97.92 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. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.60 and a beta of 1.88. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $91.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $100.89. SkyWest, Inc. has a 12 month low of $64.61 and a 12 month high of $135.57.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The transportation company reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $948.46 million during 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%. SkyWest’s revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.45 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

SkyWest declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, May 7th that allows the company to buyback $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the transportation company to buy up to 6.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on SKYW shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised SkyWest from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $119.00 to $117.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. 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 note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of SkyWest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th.

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.