Short Interest in Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:VLRS) Rises By 156.4%

Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:VLRS – Get Rating) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,840,000 shares, an increase of 156.4% from the March 15th total of 717,600 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 730,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.5 days. Approximately 2.0% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of VLRS. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación by 25.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 2,738,000 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $49,202,000 after purchasing an additional 560,000 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación by 30.5% during the fourth quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 1,737,996 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $31,232,000 after purchasing an additional 406,109 shares during the period. Gluskin Sheff & Assoc Inc. lifted its position in Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación by 139.2% during the fourth quarter. Gluskin Sheff & Assoc Inc. now owns 1,375,926 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $24,725,000 after purchasing an additional 800,784 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación by 95.7% during the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,119,692 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $24,420,000 after purchasing an additional 547,634 shares during the period. Finally, U S Global Investors Inc. lifted its position in Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. now owns 999,918 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $17,969,000 after purchasing an additional 126,711 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 53.45% of the company’s stock.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on VLRS. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 23rd. Credit Suisse Group raised shares of Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $23.00 to $26.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 16th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación in a report on Thursday, March 31st. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, April 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $27.41.

NYSE:VLRS opened at $18.15 on Friday. Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación has a 12 month low of $13.47 and a 12 month high of $23.58. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $17.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market capitalization of $2.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.73 and a beta of 2.60.

Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación (NYSE:VLRS – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 24th. The transportation company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter. Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación had a net margin of 4.86% and a return on equity of 103.84%. The business had revenue of $678.00 million during the quarter. Equities analysts forecast that Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación will post 0.89 EPS for the current year.

About Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación (Get Rating)

Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación, SAB. de C.V., through its subsidiaries, Concesionaria Vuela Compañía de Aviación, SAP.I. de C.V., provides air transportation services for passengers, cargo, and mail in Mexico and internationally. The company operates approximately 410 daily flights on routes connecting 43 cities in Mexico, 22 cities in the United States, and 3 cities in Central America.

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