Jet Blue shares downgraded

[Rottweiller]

NEW YORK, July 7 (Reuters) - Shares of low-cost carrier JetBlue Airways Corp.(JBLU.O Quote, Profile, Research) were actively trading before the market opened on Wednesday after a research firm downgraded its stock, citing downward pressure on fares.



Raymond James & Associates downgraded JetBlue to "outperform" from "strong buy," saying over-capacity in the airline industry is pushing yields, or average fares, lower.

"Unless the legacy carriers remove capacity, we believe the weakness in yields could continue into 2005," analysts James Parker and Samantha Panella wrote in a research note.

JetBlue shares were off 68 cents, or 2.5 percent, at $27.01 in pre-market trade. The carrier, which carries more planes out of New York's John F. Kennedy Airport than any other airline, on Tuesday said its load factor, which measures the percentage of seats filled on planes, fell 1.5 percentage points in June from a year earlier.

"Load factor was down in June 2004 because in addition to relatively large capacity additions in transcontinental markets, it was negatively impacted by the initiation of service to Santiago and Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic," the analysts said.

Parker and Panella reduced their second-quarter earnings estimate for the four-year-old airline to 20 cents a share from 22 cents a share, and their third-quarter forecast to 25 cents a share from 27 cents a share, to "reflect weaker yields in transcontinental markets."

The analysts also dropped their 2005 earnings estimate to $1.10 a share from $1.25 a share. Wall Street analysts, on average, expect 21 cents a share in the second quarter and 25 cents in the third quarter, acocrding to Reuters Estimates. JetBlue is expected to report second-quarter earnings on July 22

 

[BLUE BAYOU]

These same guys are now snatching up JBLU stock. They also failed to mention these numbers year over year JUNE:


Revenue Passenger Miles +41.1%
Available Seat Miles +43.6%
Revenue Passengers +33.2%
Departures +40.1%

It's like the same statistician who claims that the most stolen vehicle is the Honda Accord-- duh, it's also the best selling car out there so there's more of them... Statistics can be worked.

I'll hold out for the quarterly profit numbers.

 

[Vladimir Lenin]

It's like the same statistician who claims that the most stolen vehicle is the Honda Accord-- duh, it's also the best selling car out there so there's more of them... Statistics can be worked.

what branch of the statistics tree did you fall off of and how many branches did you hit on the way down?

 

[General Lee]

Hey, for once I wasn't the one posting a bad article about Jetblue. (we have enough now at Delta) And, is that Jessica Simpson in that first avtar? Nice swimsuit.

Bye Bye--General Lee