Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Decreases Position in Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV cut its holdings in Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK – Get Rating) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 9,888 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 290 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV’s holdings in Alaska Air Group were worth $425,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in Alaska Air Group by 416.4% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 568 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 458 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC boosted its holdings in Alaska Air Group by 1,873.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 671 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 637 shares during the period. First Command Bank boosted its holdings in Alaska Air Group by 250.0% in the 4th quarter. First Command Bank now owns 700 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the period. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alaska Air Group by 207.2% in the 3rd quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 728 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 491 shares during the period. Finally, Sittner & Nelson LLC boosted its holdings in Alaska Air Group by 300.0% in the 4th quarter. Sittner & Nelson LLC now owns 800 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the period. 77.04% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director J Kenneth Thompson sold 3,500 shares of Alaska Air Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.58, for a total value of $170,030.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 29,907 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,452,882.06. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.68% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on ALK. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Alaska Air Group from $91.00 to $70.00 in a report on Monday, May 8th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Alaska Air Group from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 27th. Citigroup raised their price target 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. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Alaska Air Group from $71.00 to $75.00 in a report on Monday, April 24th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Alaska Air Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $54.00 to $62.00 in a report on Friday, March 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.86.

Alaska Air Group Stock Performance

NYSE ALK opened at $44.92 on Tuesday. Alaska Air Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $37.19 and a 52-week high of $53.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.64. The company has a market capitalization of $5.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 97.65, a P/E/G ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a fifty day moving average of $42.25 and a 200-day moving average of $45.44.

Alaska Air Group (NYSE:ALK – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 20th. The transportation company reported ($0.62) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.48) by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.19 billion. Alaska Air Group had a return on equity of 17.03% and a net margin of 0.58%. The business’s revenue was up 30.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($1.33) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alaska Air Group, Inc. will post 6.3 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.