SkyWest, Inc. (SKYW) Receives Average Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Shares of SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $65.86.

A number of research firms recently issued reports on SKYW. BidaskClub upgraded SkyWest from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 22nd. Zacks Investment Research upgraded SkyWest from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $56.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 21st. Imperial Capital restated an “outperform” rating and set a $69.00 price target (up previously from $63.00) on shares of SkyWest in a research note on Monday, February 4th. ValuEngine upgraded SkyWest from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 4th. Finally, Cowen restated an “outperform” rating and set a $61.00 price target (down previously from $66.00) on shares of SkyWest in a research note on Thursday, January 10th.

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In other SkyWest news, Director Jerry C. Atkin sold 19,500 shares of SkyWest stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total value of $1,092,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 696,232 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,988,992. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Jerry C. Atkin sold 20,000 shares of SkyWest stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.04, for a total value of $1,120,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 697,957 shares in the company, valued at $39,113,510.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 47,775 shares of company stock worth $2,680,834 in the last 90 days. 3.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State of Alaska Department of Revenue grew its stake in shares of SkyWest by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 17,354 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $771,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of SkyWest by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 36,530 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,624,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its stake in shares of SkyWest by 23.4% in the 4th quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 1,553 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares during the last quarter. Piedmont Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of SkyWest by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Piedmont Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 12,373 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $550,000 after purchasing an additional 356 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of SkyWest by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,153 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $140,000 after purchasing an additional 458 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.87% of the company’s stock.

Shares of SKYW traded up $0.24 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $50.01. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 323,219 shares, compared to its average volume of 257,024. SkyWest has a 12-month low of $42.38 and a 12-month high of $65.80. The company has a market cap of $2.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.44 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.10.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 31st. The transportation company reported $1.28 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.20. SkyWest had a return on equity of 14.87% and a net margin of 8.70%. The business had revenue of $803.49 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $789.62 million. As a group, analysts predict that SkyWest will post 5.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 4th. Investors of record on Friday, March 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 28th. This is an increase from SkyWest’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. SkyWest’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.55%.

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.

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