HighTower Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW)

HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) by 15.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,270 shares of the transportation company’s stock after purchasing an additional 438 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in SkyWest were worth $327,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in SkyWest by 3.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 357,510 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $30,396,000 after acquiring an additional 11,169 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of SkyWest by 563.8% in the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 104.0% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 22,549 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,917,000 after purchasing an additional 11,494 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of SkyWest during the 4th quarter worth about $242,000. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC purchased a new stake in SkyWest in the 3rd quarter valued at about $648,000. 81.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Robert J. Simmons sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.57, for a total transaction of $681,420.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 175,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,882,359.19. This represents a 3.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Greg Wooley sold 14,545 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.73, for a total value of $1,537,842.85. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 68,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,267,563.01. The trade was a 17.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

SkyWest Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ SKYW opened at $88.10 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.58 billion, a PE ratio of 11.34 and a beta of 2.00. SkyWest, Inc. has a twelve month low of $64.61 and a twelve month high of $135.57. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $100.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $100.78.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The transportation company reported $2.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.59. SkyWest had a net margin of 9.15% and a return on equity of 14.17%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.42 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $130.00 target price (up previously from $120.00) on shares of SkyWest in a research note on Friday, January 31st.

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.