Ritholtz Wealth Management Purchases 4,473 Shares of SkyWest, Inc. $SKYW

Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its position in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) by 27.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 20,792 shares of the transportation company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,473 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in SkyWest were worth $2,141,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SKYW. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in SkyWest in the 1st quarter worth $37,474,000. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC bought a new position in SkyWest in the 1st quarter worth $12,839,000. Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its position in SkyWest by 243.9% in the 1st quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 176,573 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $15,427,000 after purchasing an additional 125,235 shares during the last quarter. Bandera Partners LLC grew its position in SkyWest by 138.1% in the 1st quarter. Bandera Partners LLC now owns 209,000 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $18,260,000 after purchasing an additional 121,240 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in SkyWest by 8.3% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,505,919 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $131,572,000 after purchasing an additional 115,619 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. 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. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of SkyWest from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock 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, Zacks Research cut SkyWest from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $126.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at SkyWest

In other news, Director James L. Welch sold 10,000 shares of SkyWest stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.09, for a total transaction of $1,160,900.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 27,717 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,217,666.53. The trade was a 26.51% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Russell A. Childs sold 26,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.06, for a total transaction of $3,017,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 404,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,990,720.98. This trade represents a 6.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 89,186 shares of company stock worth $10,440,398 in the last 90 days. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

SkyWest Price Performance

Shares of SkyWest stock opened at $100.37 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.73. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $109.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $102.90. SkyWest, Inc. has a twelve month low of $74.70 and a twelve month high of $135.57. The firm has a market cap of $4.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.86.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The transportation company reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.57. SkyWest had a net margin of 10.62% and a return on equity of 16.69%. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $979.95 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.82 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 19.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.