Jetblue makes 17 cents per share

[lowecur]

I think the number was around $19M. This is still an excellent number in a tough market, ie: high fuel costs, ever increasing competition. Due to their limited route structure, pricing power is almost non existant.

Margins have shrunk due to the tremendous competition coast to coast, and north/south. What's a feather in B6's hat is that they increased LF a couple of points. This means that brand loyalty is very effective so far.

The 1st Q numbers will be more reflective of the effect the free ticket and capacity flood from DL and AA are having. But all in all, still very impressive.

 

[jetblue320]

Numbers are out

Yes, the numbers are out and they're pretty good. FWIW, all the Wall Street geeks were pretty much right on as we had an operating margin of 13.3%, down from the same quarter last year. But, the LF for the quarter was 83.1% with a capacity up over 50% from last year same quarter. On time performance (another biggie with passengers) was 86.7% with a 99.6% completion factor. The overall gross income was $264 million so we missed the billion dollar cutoff by 2 million.

But don't worry, when all the flying public starts cashing in all those free AA/DL tickets that'll really put a hurt on us. (sorry, couldn't resist that one)

C ya

 

[SWA/FO]

The numbers came one day after the carrier's shares fell more than 9 percent, following a stock downgrade by Goldman Sachs.

Analyst Michael Gruetzmacher cut his JetBlue rating to "underperform" from "in-line" on Wednesday, saying the drivers of the low-cost carrier business cycle "distinctly favor" hub carriers in 2004

What?, hub carriers??

 

[Redtails]

Isn't it amazing when AMR only loses $111 million in the 4th quarter and its shares go up $2.00 while JBLU stays in the black w/$19 million and loses $2.00 per share...

 

[SpeedBird]

Redtails:

I agree with you about way stocks move based on the fundamentals, but the real drivers on stock valuation appear to be based on expectations. In the case of AA it was almost a forgone conclusion last year that it would go into BK. It pulled off an 11th hour save and has done relatively well for a legacy carrier (when compared against other legacy carriers). Meanwhile jetBlue appeared to be invincible for most of last year until the third quarter. The Atlanta blunder, and greatly increased competition from AA, DAL, AWA have reduced expectations on JBLU's stock, and made a few "experts" wonder if jetBlue has any kinks in its armor. JetBlue stock was admittedly valued at an astromonical level for most of 2003, and required that the airline maintain perfect quarterly operating results ad infinitum....a virtual impossiblity.

Todays release of Q4 results is a mixed bag for jetBlue over the short term. I am disappointed that RASM and yields continue to drop, but considering the operating environment the industry is still in it doesn't surprise me. The good news is that CASM is still at about 6 cents/mile, operating margins while down are still very respectable at over 13%, and load factors are holding up.

If you're just a stock investor in jetBlue, then you've most likely been disappointed in recent weeks. However, if you're an employee of the airline you should feel very good about jetBlue's resiliency and continued profitability despite the most earnest efforts by the competition to do it harm. As I've said before the only ones who can truly put jetBlue in jeopardy are the people who work for and lead jetblue on a daily basis.