Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $926,000 in JetBlue Airways Co. (NASDAQ:JBLU)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of JetBlue Airways Co. (NASDAQ:JBLU) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 166,800 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $926,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in JetBlue Airways by 27.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 424,972 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,955,000 after purchasing an additional 91,403 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in JetBlue Airways by 136.3% during the third 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. lifted its stake in JetBlue Airways by 9.4% during the third 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 last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its stake in JetBlue Airways by 173.7% during the third quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 162,909 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $749,000 after purchasing an additional 103,384 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in JetBlue Airways by 9.2% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,705,537 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $168,845,000 after purchasing an additional 3,099,071 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

JetBlue Airways Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ JBLU opened at $5.72 on Friday. JetBlue Airways Co. has a fifty-two week low of $3.42 and a fifty-two week high of $9.45. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $6.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $5.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market cap of $1.95 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.32 and a beta of 1.86.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on JBLU. Susquehanna raised their price objective on JetBlue Airways from $5.00 to $6.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Barclays started coverage on JetBlue Airways in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $6.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group started coverage on JetBlue Airways in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $5.00 target price on the stock. TD Cowen cut their target price on JetBlue Airways from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on 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 given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $5.78.

JetBlue Airways 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.