The Goldman Sachs Group Reiterates “Neutral” Rating for SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW)

The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated their neutral rating on shares of SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) in a report issued on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $119.00 target price on the transportation company’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on SKYW. Raymond James lifted their price target on SkyWest from $100.00 to $114.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. TD Cowen lifted their target price on SkyWest from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three 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 an average target price of $105.75.

SkyWest Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of SkyWest stock opened at $109.50 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.03 and a beta of 1.93. SkyWest has a 52-week low of $45.42 and a 52-week high of $116.47. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $91.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $82.64.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The transportation company reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.92 by $0.24. SkyWest had a net margin of 7.29% and a return on equity of 11.02%. The company had revenue of $912.79 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $896.21 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.55 EPS. SkyWest’s revenue was up 19.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that SkyWest will post 7.16 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other SkyWest news, insider Wade J. Steel sold 19,079 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.48, for a total value of $1,993,373.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 97,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,202,889.92. The trade was a 16.34 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Eric Woodward sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.53, for a total transaction of $446,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 44,426 shares in the company, valued at $4,954,831.78. The trade was a 8.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 92,467 shares of company stock worth $10,082,596. Corporate insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its stake in SkyWest by 1,368.0% during the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 367 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 342 shares during the last quarter. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new stake in SkyWest in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $42,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new stake in SkyWest in the second quarter worth approximately $54,000. CWM LLC grew its position in SkyWest by 57.3% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 766 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $63,000 after acquiring an additional 279 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in SkyWest by 45.9% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 928 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 292 shares during the last quarter. 81.30% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.