Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion (NYSE:VLRS) Lowered to "Neutral" Rating by Citigroup

Key Points

• Citigroup downgraded Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion from a "buy" to a "neutral" rating, setting a target price of $7.00, which implies an 18.52% potential upside.
• Other recent analyst actions include a downgrade by Morgan Stanley and upgrades from Barclays and Wall Street Zen, resulting in a current average rating of "Moderate Buy" with an average price target of $7.44.
• The company reported quarterly earnings of ($0.54) per share, beating expectations, with revenue hitting $693 million, surpassing the consensus estimate of $664 million.

Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion (NYSE:VLRS - Get Free Report) was downgraded by equities researchers at Citigroup from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note issued on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. They presently have a $7.00 price objective on the transportation company's stock. Citigroup's target price would indicate a potential upside of 18.34% from the company's current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on VLRS. Itau BBA Securities downgraded Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion from $4.50 to $5.50 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion from $6.00 to $8.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $4.40 target price for the company. in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $7.44.

Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of VLRS traded up $0.0450 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $5.9150. The company had a trading volume of 817,831 shares, compared to its average volume of 635,075. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $5.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $5.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73. The stock has a market cap of $689.69 million, a PE ratio of -21.91 and a beta of 2.15. Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion has a 1-year low of $3.49 and a 1-year high of $9.00.

Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion (NYSE:VLRS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The transportation company reported ($0.54) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.75) by $0.21. The business had revenue of $693.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $664.01 million. Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion had a negative return on equity of 9.89% and a negative net margin of 1.03%.During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.09 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion will post 1.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Shay Capital LLC acquired a new position in Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion during the 2nd quarter worth $214,000. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new position in Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion during the 2nd quarter worth $1,611,000. Diametric Capital LP acquired a new position in Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion during the 2nd quarter worth $1,067,000. M&T Bank Corp acquired a new position in Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion during the 2nd quarter worth $704,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion by 2.8% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 281,473 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $1,337,000 after purchasing an additional 7,626 shares in the last quarter. 53.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion

Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación, SAB. de C.V., through its subsidiary, Concesionaria Vuela Compañía de Aviación, SAP.I. de C.V., provides air transportation services for passengers, cargo, and mail in Mexico and internationally. The company operates approximately 590 daily flights on routes connecting 43 cities in Mexico, 22 cities in the United States, 4 cities in Central America, and 2 cities in South America.