Allegiant Air’s stock price, pummelled after its pilots threatened to walk off the job a few months ago, has recouped its losses and reached a new high.
Shares of parent Allegiant Travel Co. closed today at $197.85 apiece, up $4.37, or about 2.3 percent, from Tuesday.
That’s up $45.22, or nearly 30 percent, from a post-strike-attempt low of $152.63 on May 26.
Today’s closing was the highest ever for the Las Vegas-based, ultra-low-cost carrier, spokeswoman Kim Schaefer said.
Allegiant’s stock price, fueled by consistent profits and the board’s refusal to split shares, has soared far above that of other U.S. carriers. It reached a high of $197.33 on March 17, but when Allegiant’s more than 500 pilots threatened April 1 to go on strike the next day amid protracted contract talks, the stock fell sharply. It dropped nearly 6.6 percent April 1.
A federal judge tabled the planned strike just a few hours after the pilots’ union, the Teamsters, announced the walkout. A month later, another judge put a spike in the plans, ruling “it would be unlawful for the pilots to strike at this point.”
The Teamsters have appealed that decision.
Meanwhile, the stock got a boost June 18, the day of Allegiant’s annual shareholders meeting.
The airline announced that investors, in a blow to labor groups’ efforts to shake up the carrier’s corporate governance, had re-elected its entire board of directors and rejected a proposal to curb executive pay.
The stock rose 6 percent that day.
CtW Investment Group, a union-affiliated corporate-governance activist firm, had asked Allegiant shareholders to vote out half the six-member board. The three targeted directors have close ties to Allegiant Chairman and CEO Maurice “Maury” Gallagher and, as members of the audit committee, have approved multimillion-dollar contracts with outside businesses that Gallagher controls or partially owns.
According to CtW, the trio has displayed a “collective failure to guard against” the “poor use” of company money.
Investors also blocked a proposal by the Teamsters that Allegiant no longer accelerate stock payments under certain circumstances for senior executives who have quit or been fired.