Prudential Financial Inc. Sells 34,469 Shares of SkyWest, Inc. $SKYW

Prudential Financial Inc. lowered its position in shares of SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) by 18.8% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 148,424 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 34,469 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in SkyWest were worth $15,283,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SKYW. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its holdings in SkyWest by 38.4% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 551 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of SkyWest by 478.6% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 567 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 469 shares during the period. TD Private Client Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of SkyWest during the second quarter valued at approximately $71,000. EMC Capital Management purchased a new position in SkyWest during the second quarter valued at approximately $186,000. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its stake in SkyWest by 32.4% in the first quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 1,935 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $169,000 after buying an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. 81.30% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

SkyWest Price Performance

Shares of SKYW stock opened at $101.22 on Thursday. SkyWest, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $74.70 and a fifty-two week high of $135.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.30, a PEG ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.86. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $99.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.12.

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The transportation company reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.56 by $0.25. SkyWest had a net margin of 10.62% and a return on equity of 16.69%. The company had revenue of $1.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.03 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.16 EPS. SkyWest’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that SkyWest, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on SKYW shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of SkyWest in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Raymond James Financial raised SkyWest from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Zacks Research upgraded shares of SkyWest from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of SkyWest from $124.00 to $132.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of SkyWest from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and five have issued a Buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $130.20.

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.