SkyWest, Inc. $SKYW Shares Acquired by First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. lifted its stake in shares of SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) by 192.0% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,282 shares of the transportation company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,446 shares during the quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in SkyWest were worth $853,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of SkyWest by 8.3% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,505,919 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $131,572,000 after buying an additional 115,619 shares during the period. SW Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of SkyWest by 5.9% during the second quarter. SW Investment Management LLC now owns 900,000 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $92,673,000 after buying an additional 50,000 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of SkyWest by 4.0% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 564,732 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $49,341,000 after buying an additional 21,723 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of SkyWest during the first quarter worth $37,474,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of SkyWest by 2.9% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 233,175 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $20,372,000 after buying an additional 6,574 shares during the period. 81.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SKYW has been the subject of a number of research reports. Zacks Research downgraded shares of SkyWest from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of SkyWest from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of SkyWest in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of SkyWest from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, SkyWest currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $126.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other SkyWest news, insider Wade J. Steel sold 17,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.26, for a total value of $2,010,420.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 102,416 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,111,716.16. This represents a 14.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Eric Woodward sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.67, for a total transaction of $816,690.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 47,810 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,577,992.70. This trade represents a 12.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 89,186 shares of company stock valued at $10,440,398. Insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

SkyWest Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of SkyWest stock opened at $100.35 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $107.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $103.59. The company has a market cap of $4.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.86. SkyWest, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $74.70 and a fifty-two week high of $135.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.73.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The transportation company reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.57. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $979.95 million. SkyWest had a net margin of 10.62% and a return on equity of 16.69%. The company’s revenue was up 19.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.82 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SkyWest Company 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.