Principal Financial Group Inc. Purchases 64,847 Shares of JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ:JBLU)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ:JBLU - Free Report) by 4.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,512,443 shares of the transportation company's stock after purchasing an additional 64,847 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.43% of JetBlue Airways worth $7,290,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC raised its stake in JetBlue Airways by 14,595.7% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,599,279 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $130,470,000 after buying an additional 16,486,326 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in shares of JetBlue Airways by 491.7% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 4,274,457 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $33,597,000 after purchasing an additional 3,552,057 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. increased its stake in shares of JetBlue Airways by 3,729.9% during the fourth quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 3,436,202 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $27,009,000 after purchasing an additional 3,346,482 shares in the last quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of JetBlue Airways by 60.8% during the fourth quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 5,203,155 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $40,897,000 after purchasing an additional 1,968,343 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of JetBlue Airways during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $14,624,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on JBLU shares. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of JetBlue Airways from $4.25 to $5.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of JetBlue Airways from $7.00 to $4.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group set a $3.00 price target on shares of JetBlue Airways and gave the stock a "sell" rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Raymond James Financial cut shares of JetBlue Airways from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Susquehanna lowered their target price on shares of JetBlue Airways from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have assigned a hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $5.16.

JetBlue Airways Price Performance

NASDAQ JBLU traded up $0.16 on Wednesday, reaching $4.52. The company had a trading volume of 16,742,465 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,743,175. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.60 billion, a PE ratio of -5.51 and a beta of 1.76. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $4.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $5.46. JetBlue Airways Corporation has a 12 month low of $3.34 and a 12 month high of $8.31.

JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The transportation company reported ($0.59) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.61) by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.17 billion. JetBlue Airways had a negative net margin of 3.12% and a negative return on equity of 11.93%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.43) EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that JetBlue Airways Corporation will post -0.69 earnings per share 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.