AQR Capital Management LLC Buys 1,431,113 Shares of JetBlue Airways Co. (NASDAQ:JBLU)

AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of JetBlue Airways Co. (NASDAQ:JBLU - Free Report) by 136.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,480,796 shares of the transportation company's stock after acquiring an additional 1,431,113 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC owned about 0.74% of JetBlue Airways worth $11,412,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in JetBlue Airways by 2.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,459,166 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $201,945,000 after purchasing an additional 804,077 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in JetBlue Airways by 0.8% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 29,092,910 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $211,796,000 after purchasing an additional 228,227 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in JetBlue Airways by 7.2% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 15,994,914 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $141,714,000 after purchasing an additional 1,067,831 shares in the last quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. raised its stake in JetBlue Airways by 0.7% during the second quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 11,053,256 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $97,932,000 after purchasing an additional 72,943 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in JetBlue Airways by 5.7% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,284,127 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $138,798,000 after purchasing an additional 499,600 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.82% of the company's stock.

JetBlue Airways Stock Performance

JBLU stock opened at $7.19 on Friday. JetBlue Airways Co. has a 12 month low of $3.42 and a 12 month high of $9.45. The firm's 50-day moving average is $5.92 and its 200 day moving average is $5.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The transportation company reported ($0.19) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.29) by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.29 billion. JetBlue Airways had a negative net margin of 3.23% and a negative return on equity of 4.41%. The firm's revenue was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.22 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that JetBlue Airways Co. will post -0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on JBLU. Bank of America downgraded shares of JetBlue Airways from a "neutral" rating to an "underperform" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $6.00 to $3.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of JetBlue Airways from a "neutral" rating to an "underperform" rating and set a $3.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, November 10th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of JetBlue Airways from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the company from $4.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $5.54.

About JetBlue Airways

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.

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