7,204 Shares in Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK) Bought by American Trust

American Trust bought a new position in shares of Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK – Get Rating) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 7,204 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $282,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alaska Air Group by 207.2% during the third quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 728 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 491 shares during the last quarter. Continental Investors Services Inc. purchased a new position in Alaska Air Group in the third quarter valued at $1,046,000. Coombe Bender & Co LLC increased its holdings in Alaska Air Group by 0.4% in the third quarter. Coombe Bender & Co LLC now owns 56,208 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $2,201,000 after buying an additional 222 shares in the last quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky purchased a new position in Alaska Air Group in the third quarter valued at $431,000. Finally, CENTRAL TRUST Co increased its holdings in Alaska Air Group by 19.5% in the third quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 2,141 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $84,000 after buying an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.04% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Alaska Air Group

In other news, Director J Kenneth Thompson sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.58, for a total transaction of $170,030.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 29,907 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,452,882.06. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director J Kenneth Thompson sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.58, for a total value of $170,030.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 29,907 shares in the company, valued at $1,452,882.06. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Andrea L. Schneider sold 1,596 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.81, for a total value of $81,092.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 15,747 shares in the company, valued at $800,105.07. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on ALK. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Alaska Air Group from $57.50 to $58.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 31st. Wolfe Research cut shares of Alaska Air Group from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 27th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Alaska Air Group from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, February 2nd. Barclays raised shares of Alaska Air Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $54.00 to $62.00 in a research note on Friday, March 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Alaska Air Group from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alaska Air Group has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.05.

Alaska Air Group Trading Down 2.9 %

Shares of Alaska Air Group stock opened at $39.29 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 91.37, a P/E/G ratio of 0.36 and a beta of 1.54. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $48.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $45.61. Alaska Air Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $38.19 and a 1-year high of $61.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.65.

Alaska Air Group (NYSE:ALK – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 26th. The transportation company reported $0.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.51 billion. Alaska Air Group had a return on equity of 14.75% and a net margin of 0.60%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 30.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.24 EPS. Analysts predict that Alaska Air Group, Inc. will post 5.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Alaska Air Group

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Alaska Air Group, Inc is a holding company, which engages in the provision of air transportation services. It operates through the following segments: Mainline, Regional, and Horizon. The Mainline segment includes scheduled air transportation on Alaska’s Boeing and Airbus jet aircraft for passengers and cargo throughout the U.S., and in parts of Mexico, Costa Rica and Belize.