Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Increases Stock Holdings in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its position in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW - Free Report) by 60.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,766 shares of the transportation company's stock after purchasing an additional 4,824 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC's holdings in SkyWest were worth $1,278,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position 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 purchasing an additional 11,169 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in 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 buying an additional 129,901 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in SkyWest by 104.0% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 22,549 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $1,917,000 after buying an additional 11,494 shares during the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC purchased a new position in SkyWest during the fourth quarter worth about $242,000. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of SkyWest during the third quarter valued at about $648,000. 81.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SKYW has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of SkyWest from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday. Raymond James decreased their price target on SkyWest from $130.00 to $125.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $108.50.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Robert J. Simmons sold 6,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.57, for a total transaction of $681,420.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 175,067 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,882,359.19. The trade was a 3.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Greg Wooley sold 14,545 shares of the firm's 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. This represents 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 company insiders.

SkyWest Stock Down 6.9 %

Shares of SKYW stock traded down $6.31 during trading on Thursday, reaching $84.52. The company's stock had a trading volume of 518,476 shares, compared to its average volume of 393,959. SkyWest, Inc. has a 1-year low of $64.61 and a 1-year high of $135.57. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $99.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $100.60. The company has a market capitalization of $3.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.88 and a beta of 2.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.68.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The transportation company reported $2.34 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 period in the prior year, the business earned $0.42 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current year.

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.