Insider Selling: SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) CFO Sells $1,763,750.00 in Stock

SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) CFO Robert J. Simmons sold 17,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.75, for a total transaction of $1,763,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 131,203 shares in the company, valued at $13,612,311.25. The trade was a 11.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

SkyWest Trading Up 2.4%

Shares of NASDAQ SKYW opened at $103.26 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $93.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $100.30. SkyWest, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $64.61 and a fifty-two week high of $135.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.29 and a beta of 1.90. 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 (NASDAQ:SKYW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The transportation company reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.38. SkyWest had a net margin of 9.15% and a return on equity of 14.17%. The business had revenue of $948.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $946.13 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.45 earnings per share. SkyWest’s revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current year.

SkyWest declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan 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 plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on SKYW shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of SkyWest from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $119.00 to $117.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of SkyWest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Raymond James reduced their target price on shares of SkyWest from $130.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SkyWest

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Financial Management Professionals Inc. acquired a new position in SkyWest in the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in SkyWest in the first quarter worth $32,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in SkyWest in the fourth quarter worth $39,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in SkyWest in the fourth quarter worth $45,000. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA raised its holdings in SkyWest by 157.1% in the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 491 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. 81.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.