Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Takes Position in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 20,500 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,070,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.05% of SkyWest as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in SKYW. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of SkyWest in the third quarter valued at $900,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB purchased a new position in SkyWest during the third quarter worth about $201,000. Bailard Inc. purchased a new position in SkyWest during the third quarter worth about $386,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in SkyWest by 14.5% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,851 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $120,000 after buying an additional 362 shares during the period. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas purchased a new position in SkyWest during the third quarter worth about $294,000. 81.30% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

SkyWest Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SKYW opened at $74.31 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.00 billion, a PE ratio of 85.41 and a beta of 1.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The business has a 50-day moving average of $66.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $54.52. SkyWest, Inc. has a 12 month low of $23.37 and a 12 month high of $74.52.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The transportation company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.31. SkyWest had a return on equity of 1.59% and a net margin of 1.17%. The company had revenue of $751.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $758.41 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.93) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that SkyWest, Inc. will post 6.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director James L. Welch sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.72, for a total value of $133,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 56,067 shares in the company, valued at $3,740,790.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SKYW has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI increased their target price on SkyWest from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Raymond James increased their target price on SkyWest from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. TD Cowen upgraded SkyWest from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, February 5th. StockNews.com upgraded SkyWest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, TheStreet upgraded SkyWest from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.25.

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.