Man Group plc Purchases 19,620 Shares of SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW)

Man Group plc increased its position in shares of SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) by 21.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 110,939 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 19,620 shares during the period. Man Group plc’s holdings in SkyWest were worth $11,108,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC bought a new position in SkyWest during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in SkyWest during the fourth quarter worth $45,000. Private Trust Co. NA increased its stake in SkyWest by 157.1% in the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 491 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC bought a new stake in SkyWest in the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in SkyWest by 117.2% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 832 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $83,000 after purchasing an additional 449 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.30% of the company’s stock.

SkyWest Trading Up 0.9%

NASDAQ:SKYW opened at $102.67 on Monday. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average of $89.84 and a 200-day moving average of $101.11. The company has a market cap of $4.15 billion, a PE ratio of 13.21 and a beta of 1.88. SkyWest, Inc. has a one year low of $64.61 and a one year high of $135.57.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The transportation company reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.38. The company had revenue of $948.46 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $946.13 million. SkyWest had a net margin of 9.15% and a return on equity of 14.17%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.45 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SkyWest announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, May 7th that allows the company to buyback $250.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the transportation company to repurchase up to 6.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SKYW has been the subject of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com raised shares of SkyWest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Raymond James decreased their price target on shares of SkyWest from $130.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of SkyWest from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $119.00 to $117.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th.

Insider Transactions at SkyWest

In other news, VP Greg Wooley sold 14,545 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.73, for a total transaction of $1,537,842.85. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 68,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,267,563.01. The trade was a 17.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.