Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK) Short Interest Update

Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK) was the target of a large growth in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,610,000 shares, a growth of 47.9% from the May 31st total of 5,820,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,950,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.4 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alaska Air Group

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Boston Partners boosted its stake in Alaska Air Group by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,966,594 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $170,533,000 after purchasing an additional 155,403 shares during the last quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky raised its holdings in shares of Alaska Air Group by 59.6% during the 1st quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 43,095 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,852,000 after acquiring an additional 16,092 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Alaska Air Group in the 1st quarter valued at about $227,000. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in Alaska Air Group by 211.7% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 47,770 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $2,054,000 after buying an additional 32,442 shares during the period. Finally, EMC Capital Management raised its holdings in Alaska Air Group by 322.5% in the 1st quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 7,182 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $309,000 after buying an additional 5,482 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ALK. Susquehanna raised their price target on shares of Alaska Air Group from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Alaska Air Group from $49.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. StockNews.com raised shares of Alaska Air Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Alaska Air Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Bank of America increased 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, April 19th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $56.60.

Alaska Air Group Stock Performance

ALK traded down $0.36 during trading on Friday, reaching $40.40. 2,179,980 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,563,812. Alaska Air Group has a 1 year low of $30.75 and a 1 year high of $57.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.61. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $42.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.92.

Alaska Air Group (NYSE:ALK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The transportation company reported ($0.92) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.09) by $0.17. The company had revenue of $2.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. Alaska Air Group had a net margin of 2.34% and a return on equity of 13.54%. 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 firm posted ($0.62) EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Alaska Air Group will post 4.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alaska Air Group Company Profile

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.