Raymond James Issues Positive Forecast for SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) Stock Price

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) had its target price hoisted by equities researchers at Raymond James from $114.00 to $120.00 in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the transportation company’s stock. Raymond James’ price target points to a potential upside of 19.84% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on SKYW. TD Cowen upped their price objective on SkyWest from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $119.00 price objective on shares of SkyWest in a report on Friday, November 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, SkyWest has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $107.25.

SkyWest Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SKYW opened at $100.13 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.12 and a beta of 1.96. SkyWest has a 1-year low of $48.28 and a 1-year high of $117.51. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $106.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $89.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The transportation company reported $2.16 earnings per share 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 quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.55 EPS. SkyWest’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that SkyWest will post 7.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Ronald J. Mittelstaedt sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.06, for a total value of $2,801,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 11,283 shares in the company, valued at $1,264,372.98. The trade was a 68.90 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Russell A. Childs sold 27,903 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.47, for a total transaction of $3,110,347.41. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 349,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,964,115.56. The trade was a 7.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 92,467 shares of company stock worth $10,082,596. Corporate insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SkyWest

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 8,298 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $681,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management bought a new position in SkyWest during the second quarter valued at $450,000. Convergence Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in SkyWest during the second quarter valued at $969,000. CIBC Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of SkyWest in the second quarter valued at $201,000. Finally, Versor Investments LP lifted its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 15.4% in the 2nd quarter. Versor Investments LP now owns 9,904 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $813,000 after acquiring an additional 1,319 shares during the last quarter. 81.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.