Scotia Capital Inc. Buys Shares of 9,405 SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW)

Scotia Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 9,405 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $942,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of SKYW. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lifted its position in SkyWest by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 19,500 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,953,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund raised its stake in shares of SkyWest by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 9,495 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $951,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Highland Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of SkyWest by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC now owns 2,783 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $279,000 after acquiring an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of SkyWest by 14.4% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,561 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $156,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares during the period. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its holdings in SkyWest by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 7,800 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $781,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. 81.30% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at SkyWest

In other SkyWest news, CFO Robert J. Simmons sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.57, for a total value of $681,420.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 175,067 shares in the company, valued at $19,882,359.19. This represents a 3.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Greg Wooley sold 14,545 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.73, for a total transaction of $1,537,842.85. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 68,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,267,563.01. This represents a 17.46 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

SkyWest Stock Performance

Shares of SKYW stock opened at $86.31 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $94.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $100.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.51 billion, a PE ratio of 11.11 and a beta of 1.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. SkyWest, Inc. has a 52 week low of $64.61 and a 52 week high of $135.57.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The transportation company reported $2.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm posted $0.42 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on SKYW. 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, April 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised SkyWest from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $119.00 to $117.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded SkyWest from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday.

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.