SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,430,000 shares, an increase of 25.4% from the October 31st total of 1,140,000 shares. Approximately 3.7% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 341,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.2 days.

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 stock was sold at an average price of $104.48, for a total transaction of $1,993,373.92. Following 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Russell A. Childs sold 27,903 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 349,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,964,115.56. This represents a 7.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 92,467 shares of company stock worth $10,082,596. 2.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of SkyWest

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of SkyWest by 90.2% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 551,060 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $45,225,000 after buying an additional 261,349 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in SkyWest by 16.8% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,151,578 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $94,510,000 after purchasing an additional 165,670 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of SkyWest by 42.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 484,147 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $41,162,000 after purchasing an additional 143,661 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of SkyWest by 563.8% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 27.7% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 445,990 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $36,602,000 after purchasing an additional 96,830 shares during the period. 81.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on SKYW. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $119.00 price objective on shares of SkyWest in a report on Friday, November 15th. Raymond James lifted their target price on SkyWest from $100.00 to $114.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price target on SkyWest from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, SkyWest presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $105.75.

SkyWest Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SKYW traded up $0.78 during trading on Friday, reaching $114.74. 162,493 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 353,665. SkyWest has a 52-week low of $45.99 and a 52-week high of $117.51. The company has a 50-day moving average of $98.54 and a 200-day moving average of $85.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.61 and a beta of 1.93. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The transportation company reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $896.21 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.55 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 19.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that SkyWest will post 7.16 EPS 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.