JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

JetBlue Airways Co. (NASDAQ:JBLU)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on the stock from $7.00 to $6.00. The stock had previously closed at $7.51, but opened at $6.11. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has a neutral rating on the stock. JetBlue Airways shares last traded at $6.44, with a volume of 11,918,703 shares.

JBLU has been the subject of a number of other reports. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of JetBlue Airways in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $6.00 price target for the company. UBS Group started coverage on JetBlue Airways in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $5.00 price objective on the stock. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of JetBlue Airways from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of JetBlue Airways from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $4.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of JetBlue Airways from $5.00 to $8.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, JetBlue Airways presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $5.78.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On JetBlue Airways

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of JetBlue Airways by 27.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 424,972 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,955,000 after acquiring an additional 91,403 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in JetBlue Airways by 136.3% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,480,796 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $11,412,000 after purchasing an additional 1,431,113 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. increased its holdings in shares of JetBlue Airways by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 377,628 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,737,000 after purchasing an additional 32,516 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP raised its position in shares of JetBlue Airways by 173.7% during the third quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 162,909 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $749,000 after buying an additional 103,384 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of JetBlue Airways by 9.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,705,537 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $168,845,000 after buying an additional 3,099,071 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

JetBlue Airways Stock Performance

The business has a 50-day moving average of $6.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $5.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.60.

JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The transportation company reported ($0.43) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.53) by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.20 billion. JetBlue Airways had a negative return on equity of 5.38% and a negative net margin of 8.79%. JetBlue Airways’s quarterly revenue was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.34) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that JetBlue Airways Co. will post -0.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About JetBlue Airways

JetBlue Airways Corporation provides air transportation services. The company operates a fleet of Airbus A321, Airbus A220, Airbus A321neo, Airbus A320 Restyled, Airbus A320, Airbus A321 with Mint, Airbus A321neo with Mint, Airbus A321neoLR with Mint, and Embraer E190 aircraft. It also serves 100 destinations across the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America, Canada, and Europe.