SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) Short Interest Up 24.5% in February

SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,730,000 shares, a growth of 24.5% from the February 13th total of 1,390,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 421,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.1 days. Approximately 4.5% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $130.00 price objective (up from $120.00) on shares of SkyWest in a research note on Friday, January 31st.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Robert J. Simmons sold 6,000 shares of SkyWest stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.57, for a total transaction of $681,420.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 175,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Greg Wooley sold 14,545 shares of SkyWest stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.73, for a total value of $1,537,842.85. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 68,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,267,563.01. This trade represents a 17.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wealthfront Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of SkyWest in the fourth quarter valued at about $146,935,000. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,390,300 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $139,211,000 after purchasing an additional 97,108 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 0.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 960,739 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $81,697,000 after purchasing an additional 6,542 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in SkyWest by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 709,355 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $71,028,000 after acquiring an additional 26,561 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in SkyWest by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 543,009 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $54,371,000 after acquiring an additional 21,637 shares in the last quarter. 81.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

SkyWest Stock Down 1.9 %

NASDAQ:SKYW opened at $86.73 on Wednesday. SkyWest has a 1 year low of $64.30 and a 1 year high of $135.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The stock has a market cap of $3.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.17 and a beta of 2.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $104.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $99.71.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The transportation company reported $2.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.59. SkyWest had a return on equity of 14.17% and a net margin of 9.15%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that SkyWest will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current 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.