The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Alaska Air Group Inc. (NYSE:ALK). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Industrials company by 1.69% to 14.19 million shares with purchase of 0.24 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 11.13% valued currently at $678.68 million. In addition, Victory Capital Management, Inc. raised its holdings by 0.49 million to 6.96 million shares. And BlackRock Fund Advisors has lifted its position by 2.20% or 0.13 million shares – to 6.0 million shares.
With over 2.23 million Alaska Air Group Inc. (ALK) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $44.08 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $98.21 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -5.33% and its price on 03/13/23 lost nearly -4.38%. Currently, there are 127.31M common shares owned by the public and among those 126.36M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 15 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for ALK have a consensus price objective of $65.88. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $91.00 and a low of $58.50. The average price target is 30.45% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 24.65% over that period. But an upside of 51.56% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $62.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 47 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 28 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 55,576 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 19 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 21,526 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Alaska Air Group Inc. are Victory Sycamore Established Valu, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, and Vanguard PRIMECAP Fund. Victory Sycamore Established Valu owns 4.7 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $224.8 million. The company bought an additional 0.33 million shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.69% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index bought 5704.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 3.88 million shares valued at over $185.52 million and representing 3.04% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard PRIMECAP Fund sold 95700.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 3.67 million shares at a value of $175.51 million. Vanguard PRIMECAP Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.88% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Alaska Air Group Inc. (NYSE: ALK) opened at $45.02, down -$1.08 from a prior closing price of $46.10. However, the script later moved the day high at 45.20, down -4.38%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -7.97% and 0.05% over the past three months. ALK shares are trading 2.65% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -10.32% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $38.19 and touched a high of $61.55 over the same period. ALK has an average intraday trading volume of 1.41 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -9.00%, -9.34%, and -2.36% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Alaska Air Group Inc. (NYSE: ALK) shares accounts for 79.90% of the company’s 127.31M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 31.66%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 49.54% and 0.93% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $5.79B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.54. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 100.87, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $0.44. The company has a PEG of 5.19 and a Quick Ratio of 0.70 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.57. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 4.12% over the week and 2.48% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Alaska Air Group Inc. (ALK) will achieve an EPS of -$0.41 for the current quarter, $1.98 for the next quarter and $6.87 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is -$0.75 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of -$0.19. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was -$1.33 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -87.60%, and 19.72% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 19.43% over the next five years, compared to -40.00% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 15 brokerage firm advisors rate Alaska Air Group Inc. (ALK) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.90. Specifically, 12 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 1 of the 15 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the ALK, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Barclays stated their Overweight rating for the stock in a research note on March 10, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $54-$62. Goldman was of a view on December 16, 2022 that the stock is Buy, while Citigroup gave the stock Buy rating on December 05, 2022, issuing a price target of $55. Raymond James on their part issued Outperform rating on June 23, 2022.
