JetBlue Airways Earnings Preview

Motley Fool Staff
Updated

Investors hope JetBlue Airways (NAS: JBLU) will top analyst estimates once again after beating predictions by $0.04 in the previous quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday, April 16. JetBlue Airways is a passenger airline that provides competitive fares mainly on point-to-point routes.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on JetBlue Airways as five analysts rate it as a buy and only two analysts rate it as a sell. Analysts don't like JetBlue Airways as much as competitor Alaska Air Group overall. While analysts still rate the stock a hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.

  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $1.18 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 16.8% from the year-ago quarter.

  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.07 per share. Estimates range from $0.01 to $0.10.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are strongly supporting the stock, with 81.2% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The greater community backs the All-Stars, as 81.9% give it a rating of "outperform." JetBlue Airways' bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.


Management:
JetBlue Airways' income has fallen year-over-year by an average of 75.4% over the past five quarters. The company's gross margin shrank by 2.9 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 21.9% while cost of sales rose 27.9% to $706 million from a year earlier.

Now let's get some insight into how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. JetBlue Airways has seen declining gross margins year-over-year for the last four quarters. Gross margins reflect the total sales revenue retained after costs. Here are JetBlue Airways' reported margins for the last four quarters:

Quarter

Q4

Q3

Q2

Q1

Gross Margin

38.4%

37.7%

37.4%

37.6%

Operating Margin

7.2%

9.0%

7.5%

4.4%

Net Margin

2.0%

2.9%

2.2%

0.3%

For all our JetBlue Airways-specific analysis, including earnings and beyond, add JetBlue Airways to My Watchlist.

At the time thisarticle was published The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.

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