Alaska Air Group (NYSE:ALK) Shares Up 4.4%

Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK) shares shot up 4.4% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $42.90 and last traded at $42.60. 3,063,507 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 26% from the average session volume of 2,438,353 shares. The stock had previously closed at $40.80.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on ALK. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Alaska Air Group from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Melius downgraded shares of Alaska Air Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Alaska Air Group from $50.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Alaska Air Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $44.00 to $51.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Alaska Air Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $57.85.

Alaska Air Group Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $5.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a 50-day moving average of $39.52 and a 200-day moving average of $37.17.

Alaska Air Group (NYSE:ALK) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The transportation company reported ($0.92) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.09) by $0.17. The business had revenue of $2.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. Alaska Air Group had a return on equity of 14.72% and a net margin of 2.25%. Alaska Air Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.62) EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alaska Air Group, Inc. will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alaska Air Group news, EVP Andrew R. Harrison sold 6,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.36, for a total transaction of $249,340.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 26,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $999,201.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.68% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alaska Air Group

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alaska Air Group by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,461,295 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $536,225,000 after acquiring an additional 47,871 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alaska Air Group by 9.1% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,951,500 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $422,861,000 after buying an additional 660,917 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Alaska Air Group by 13.8% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,439,909 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $212,543,000 after buying an additional 660,455 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Alaska Air Group by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,105,350 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $218,323,000 after buying an additional 91,940 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of Alaska Air Group by 64.6% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,811,191 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $148,861,000 after buying an additional 1,495,311 shares during the period. 81.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Alaska Air Group

Alaska Air Group, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates airlines. It operates through three segments: Mainline, Regional, and Horizon. The company offers scheduled air transportation services on Boeing jet aircraft for passengers and cargo in the United States, and in parts of Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize, Guatemala, and the Bahamas; and for passengers across a shorter distance network within the United States, Canada, and Mexico.