Principal Financial Group Inc. Trims Stake in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) by 6.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 213,336 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 13,821 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.52% of SkyWest worth $11,136,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in SKYW. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of SkyWest by 14.5% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,851 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $120,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new stake in shares of SkyWest in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $294,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in SkyWest by 139.1% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 19,030 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $798,000 after acquiring an additional 11,072 shares in the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund bought a new position in SkyWest in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,115,000. Finally, Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd lifted its position in SkyWest by 2,109.5% in the 3rd quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 1,392 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 1,329 shares in the last quarter. 81.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other SkyWest news, CFO Robert J. Simmons sold 8,890 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $666,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 130,024 shares in the company, valued at $9,751,800. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other SkyWest news, insider Wade J. Steel sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.10, for a total value of $1,156,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 116,733 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,000,114.30. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Robert J. Simmons sold 8,890 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $666,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 130,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,751,800. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 74,270 shares of company stock worth $5,654,112. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

SkyWest Price Performance

Shares of SKYW opened at $75.05 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10. The firm has a market cap of $3.02 billion, a PE ratio of 27.09 and a beta of 1.89. SkyWest, Inc. has a 1-year low of $28.55 and a 1-year high of $79.56. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $71.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $60.01.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The transportation company reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.24 by $0.21. SkyWest had a return on equity of 5.45% and a net margin of 3.83%. The business had revenue of $804.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $800.07 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.45) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that SkyWest, Inc. will post 6.81 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on SKYW shares. TheStreet raised SkyWest from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. TD Cowen upgraded shares of SkyWest from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $55.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Monday, February 5th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of SkyWest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of SkyWest from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of SkyWest from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, SkyWest currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.