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

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. Currently, 4.5% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 421,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.1 days.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Greg Wooley sold 14,545 shares of the firm’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 value of $1,537,842.85. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 68,737 shares in the company, valued at $7,267,563.01. This trade represents a 17.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Robert J. Simmons sold 6,000 shares of SkyWest stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $19,882,359.19. This trade represents a 3.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of SkyWest

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Pitcairn Co. purchased a new stake in SkyWest in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $535,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in SkyWest by 3.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 357,510 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $30,396,000 after buying an additional 11,169 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of SkyWest by 563.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 152,940 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $13,002,000 after acquiring an additional 129,901 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in shares of SkyWest by 104.0% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 22,549 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,917,000 after purchasing an additional 11,494 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of SkyWest by 12.5% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 682,794 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $58,051,000 after purchasing an additional 76,007 shares in the last quarter. 81.30% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $130.00 price objective (up previously from $120.00) on shares of SkyWest in a report on Friday, January 31st.

SkyWest Price Performance

SKYW stock traded down $0.32 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $87.01. 40,527 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 441,994. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.20 and a beta of 2.00. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $105.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $99.55. SkyWest has a 12 month low of $64.30 and a 12 month high of $135.57.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The transportation company reported $2.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 last year, the company earned $0.42 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that SkyWest will post 9.01 EPS 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.