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

JetBlue Airways Co. (NASDAQ:JBLU) gapped down prior to trading 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 changing hands.

JBLU has been the subject of several other reports. Bank of America lowered shares of JetBlue Airways from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $6.00 to $3.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Barclays began coverage on shares of JetBlue Airways in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $6.00 price objective on the stock. 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 report on Thursday, April 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of JetBlue Airways from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $4.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of JetBlue Airways from $5.00 to $6.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $5.78.

Institutional Trading of JetBlue Airways

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in JBLU. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of JetBlue Airways by 9.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,705,537 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $168,845,000 after buying an additional 3,099,071 shares in the last quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. grew its stake in shares of JetBlue Airways by 24.2% in the 4th quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. now owns 9,781,327 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $54,286,000 after purchasing an additional 1,903,910 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of JetBlue Airways by 107.2% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,462,036 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $15,925,000 after purchasing an additional 1,791,273 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of JetBlue Airways by 49.6% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,576,623 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $21,052,000 after purchasing an additional 1,518,328 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of 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. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

JetBlue Airways Price Performance

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $6.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $5.65. The company has a market cap of $2.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.29 and a beta of 1.86. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The transportation company reported ($0.43) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.53) by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.20 billion. JetBlue Airways had a negative net margin of 3.23% and a negative return on equity of 4.41%. The business’s revenue was down 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.34) EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that JetBlue Airways Co. will post -0.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

JetBlue Airways Company Profile

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.