JetBlue Airways Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:JBLU)

JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ:JBLU) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders acquired 41,858 call options on the company. This is an increase of 44% compared to the typical daily volume of 29,103 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at JetBlue Airways

In other news, CFO Ursula Hurley sold 77,253 shares of JetBlue Airways stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.76, for a total transaction of $444,977.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 211,099 shares in the company, valued at $1,215,930.24. This trade represents a 26.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 81,253 shares of company stock valued at $465,897 over the last 90 days. 2.41% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of JetBlue Airways

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of JBLU. Essex Financial Services Inc. grew its stake in JetBlue Airways by 12.4% in the 4th quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. now owns 23,504 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $107,000 after purchasing an additional 2,599 shares during the period. Amundi increased its position in shares of JetBlue Airways by 8.9% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 39,447 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $174,000 after purchasing an additional 3,238 shares during the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of JetBlue Airways by 157.3% during the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 5,517 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 3,373 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of JetBlue Airways by 62.1% during the 1st quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 10,809 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 4,142 shares during the period. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont purchased a new position in shares of JetBlue Airways in the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

JetBlue Airways Stock Performance

Shares of JBLU stock opened at $4.37 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $5.19 and a 200-day moving average of $5.07. The company has a market cap of $1.65 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.83 and a beta of 1.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.04, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.63. JetBlue Airways has a one year low of $3.87 and a one year high of $6.62.

JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The transportation company reported ($0.66) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.69) by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.69 billion. JetBlue Airways had a negative net margin of 9.32% and a negative return on equity of 45.92%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.21) earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that JetBlue Airways will post -2.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

JBLU has been the topic of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of JetBlue Airways from $6.00 to $6.75 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “underperform” rating on shares of JetBlue Airways in a report on Monday, July 6th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of JetBlue Airways in a research note on Friday, July 17th. UBS Group dropped their target price on JetBlue Airways from $5.00 to $4.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on JetBlue Airways from $3.50 to $4.50 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and six have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $5.41.

JetBlue Airways Company Profile

JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ: JBLU) is a passenger airline that provides scheduled air transportation in the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America, Canada and select destinations in Europe. The company serves leisure and business travelers through a network connecting major cities, focus cities and vacation destinations.

JetBlue offers several travel products and services, including standard economy seating, premium Mint service on select routes, and EvenMore seating with additional legroom and other benefits.