JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) Shares Gap Up to $6.53

Shares of JetBlue Airways Co. (NASDAQ:JBLU) gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $6.53, but opened at $6.68. JetBlue Airways shares last traded at $6.89, with a volume of 1,257,203 shares.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group assumed coverage on JetBlue Airways in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. They set a “sell” rating and a $5.00 price target on the stock. Susquehanna upped their price target on JetBlue Airways from $5.00 to $6.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on JetBlue Airways from $5.00 to $8.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Bank of America downgraded JetBlue Airways from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $6.00 to $3.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised JetBlue Airways from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $7.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $5.86.

JetBlue Airways Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $6.91 and a 200 day moving average of $5.59.

JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The transportation company reported ($0.19) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.29) by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.29 billion. JetBlue Airways had a negative return on equity of 4.41% and a negative net margin of 3.23%. JetBlue Airways’s revenue was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.22 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that JetBlue Airways Co. will post -0.72 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of JetBlue Airways

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in JetBlue Airways by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,059,623 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $205,681,000 after purchasing an additional 354,086 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in JetBlue Airways by 0.8% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 29,092,910 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $211,796,000 after purchasing an additional 228,227 shares during the period. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. grew its holdings in JetBlue Airways by 12.2% during the fourth quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 12,450,690 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $69,101,000 after purchasing an additional 1,354,786 shares during the period. U S Global Investors Inc. grew its holdings in JetBlue Airways by 24.2% during the fourth quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. now owns 9,781,327 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $54,286,000 after purchasing an additional 1,903,910 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in JetBlue Airways by 5.7% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,284,127 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $138,798,000 after purchasing an additional 499,600 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About JetBlue Airways

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.