Short Interest in JetBlue Airways Co. (NASDAQ:JBLU) Decreases By 6.9%

JetBlue Airways Co. (NASDAQ:JBLU) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 44,840,000 shares, a decrease of 6.9% from the October 31st total of 48,180,000 shares. Currently, 14.4% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 17,650,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of JetBlue Airways during the 3rd quarter valued at about $307,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in shares of JetBlue Airways during the third quarter worth approximately $1,973,000. XTX Topco Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of JetBlue Airways by 186.4% in the 3rd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 106,910 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $701,000 after acquiring an additional 69,584 shares during the last quarter. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of JetBlue Airways in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,761,000. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of JetBlue Airways by 21.4% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 525,024 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $3,444,000 after purchasing an additional 92,468 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on JBLU. StockNews.com raised shares of JetBlue Airways to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Susquehanna raised their target price 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 boosted their price target for the company from $3.00 to $6.00 in a research note on Monday, September 9th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of JetBlue Airways from $5.00 to $6.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of JetBlue Airways from $5.00 to $7.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $6.43.

JetBlue Airways Price Performance

JetBlue Airways stock opened at $6.19 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $6.54 and a 200-day moving average price of $5.93. JetBlue Airways has a twelve month low of $4.49 and a twelve month high of $8.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.18.

JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The transportation company reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.39) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that JetBlue Airways will post -0.92 EPS 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.