Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of JetBlue Airways Call Options (NASDAQ:JBLU)

JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ:JBLU) saw some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock investors purchased 41,858 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 44% compared to the typical daily volume of 29,103 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

JBLU has been the topic of several research reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of JetBlue Airways from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of JetBlue Airways from $3.50 to $4.50 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of JetBlue Airways from $6.00 to $6.75 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of JetBlue Airways from $3.50 to $4.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price target on JetBlue Airways from $6.00 to $5.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $5.41.

Insider Activity

In other JetBlue Airways news, CFO Ursula Hurley sold 77,253 shares of JetBlue Airways stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.76, for a total value of $444,977.28. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 211,099 shares in the company, valued at $1,215,930.24. The trade was a 26.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 81,253 shares of company stock valued at $465,897. Company insiders own 2.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of JetBlue Airways in the 2nd quarter valued at about $20,022,000. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new position in shares of JetBlue Airways during the second quarter worth about $13,549,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of JetBlue Airways in the second quarter worth approximately $11,336,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of JetBlue Airways in the second quarter worth approximately $10,748,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in JetBlue Airways by 235.9% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 2,246,200 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $9,928,000 after acquiring an additional 1,577,500 shares during the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

JetBlue Airways Trading Up 3.8%

NASDAQ JBLU traded up $0.17 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $4.46. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,321,638 shares, compared to its average volume of 26,223,018. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $5.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $5.08. 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 52 week low of $3.87 and a 52 week high of $6.62. The stock has a market cap of $1.68 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.87 and a beta of 1.70.

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

About JetBlue Airways

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.