Principal Financial Group Inc. Boosts Stock Position in JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ:JBLU)

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ:JBLU) by 4.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,512,443 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 64,847 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.43% of JetBlue Airways worth $7,290,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Xponance Inc. grew its stake in shares of JetBlue Airways by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 22,613 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $178,000 after buying an additional 2,095 shares during the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC lifted its position in JetBlue Airways by 10.9% in the 4th quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 23,181 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $182,000 after acquiring an additional 2,284 shares in the last quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in JetBlue Airways by 8.9% in the 4th quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 32,679 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $257,000 after acquiring an additional 2,666 shares in the last quarter. Mariner LLC lifted its position in JetBlue Airways by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 67,781 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $533,000 after acquiring an additional 3,575 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its position in JetBlue Airways by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 170,500 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,340,000 after acquiring an additional 6,300 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America lowered their price objective on JetBlue Airways from $5.25 to $4.25 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Raymond James Financial cut JetBlue Airways from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Susquehanna lowered their price objective on JetBlue Airways from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. UBS Group set a $3.00 price objective on JetBlue Airways and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised JetBlue Airways to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have issued a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $5.16.

JetBlue Airways Price Performance

Shares of JetBlue Airways stock opened at $4.36 on Wednesday. JetBlue Airways Corporation has a one year low of $3.34 and a one year high of $8.31. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $4.67 and its 200 day moving average is $5.46. The stock has a market cap of $1.54 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.32 and a beta of 1.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.31, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.01.

JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The transportation company reported ($0.59) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.61) by $0.02. JetBlue Airways had a negative return on equity of 11.93% and a negative net margin of 3.12%. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.17 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.43) EPS. JetBlue Airways’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that JetBlue Airways Corporation will post -0.69 earnings per share for the current 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.