Barclays Issues Positive Forecast for JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) Stock Price

JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) had its target price increased by Barclays from $5.00 to $7.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an underweight rating on the transportation company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on JBLU. Citigroup lifted their target price on JetBlue Airways from $6.00 to $7.75 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Susquehanna upped their price objective on JetBlue Airways from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America raised JetBlue Airways from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $3.00 to $6.00 in a research report on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of JetBlue Airways to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on JetBlue Airways from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, JetBlue Airways presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $6.43.

JetBlue Airways Price Performance

Shares of JBLU traded down $0.08 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $7.03. 6,805,337 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,731,834. The stock has a market cap of $2.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.82 and a beta of 1.92. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $6.40 and a 200-day moving average of $5.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.21. JetBlue Airways has a 52 week low of $4.09 and a 52 week high of $8.07.

JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The transportation company reported ($0.16) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.26) by $0.10. JetBlue Airways had a negative return on equity of 8.35% and a negative net margin of 9.17%. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.39) EPS. JetBlue Airways’s quarterly revenue was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that JetBlue Airways will post -0.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On JetBlue Airways

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of JetBlue Airways by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,376,886 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $277,336,000 after acquiring an additional 317,263 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of JetBlue Airways by 3.0% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 17,878,115 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $108,875,000 after buying an additional 521,767 shares during the last quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. increased its holdings in shares of JetBlue Airways by 6.5% in the first quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 13,256,094 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $98,360,000 after purchasing an additional 805,404 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of JetBlue Airways by 16.4% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 8,041,025 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $48,970,000 after buying an additional 1,135,217 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of JetBlue Airways by 13.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,661,742 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $37,141,000 after purchasing an additional 663,865 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

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.