Azul (NYSE:AZUL) Shares Down 5.8% – Time to Sell?

Azul S.A. (NYSE:AZUL)’s share price was down 5.8% on Friday . The stock traded as low as $2.74 and last traded at $2.74. Approximately 721,061 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 64% from the average daily volume of 1,993,088 shares. The stock had previously closed at $2.91.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AZUL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Seaport Res Ptn lowered Azul from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Azul from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $6.70 to $4.00 in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on shares of Azul from $8.00 to $6.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Azul from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Azul to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Azul has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $6.59.

Azul Price Performance

The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $3.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $4.35. The company has a market cap of $1.16 billion, a PE ratio of -0.29 and a beta of 1.98.

Azul (NYSE:AZUL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 12th. The company reported ($1.23) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.60) by ($0.63). The business had revenue of $800.65 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $791.43 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.81) EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Azul S.A. will post -1.75 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Azul

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AZUL. Ground Swell Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Azul during the third quarter worth about $44,000. Inspire Advisors LLC increased its stake in Azul by 84.0% during the 3rd quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 41,324 shares of the company’s stock worth $142,000 after buying an additional 18,861 shares in the last quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new position in shares of Azul during the third quarter valued at approximately $306,000. Creative Planning purchased a new position in shares of Azul in the third quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Perpetual Ltd lifted its position in shares of Azul by 4.5% in the third quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 2,354,953 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,101,000 after acquiring an additional 100,639 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

About Azul

Azul SA, together with its subsidiaries, provides air transportation services in Brazil and internationally. As of December 31, 2023, the company operated approximately 1,000 daily departures to 160 destinations through a network of 300 non-stop routes with an operating fleet of 183 aircraft and a passenger contractual fleet of 189 aircraft.