Azul (NYSE:AZUL) Shares Gap Up to $8.40

Shares of Azul S.A. (NYSE:AZUL – Get Rating) gapped up prior to trading on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $8.40, but opened at $8.87. Azul shares last traded at $9.13, with a volume of 736,069 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AZUL. Bank of America raised shares of Azul from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $6.90 to $11.00 in a research report on Monday. UBS Group raised shares of Azul from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Azul from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $6.00 to $8.60 in a research report on Wednesday, March 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $9.78.

Azul Price Performance

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $7.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $6.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.77 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.54 and a beta of 1.38.

Azul (NYSE:AZUL – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 6th. The company reported ($0.83) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.26) by ($0.57). The business had revenue of $846.31 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $898.95 million. On average, analysts forecast that Azul S.A. will post -1.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Azul

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Azul in the third quarter valued at about $160,000. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC raised its position in shares of Azul by 26.9% in the third quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 3,841,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,268,000 after purchasing an additional 814,568 shares during the period. Penserra Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Azul by 31.4% in the third quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 17,562 shares of the company’s stock valued at $142,000 after purchasing an additional 4,197 shares during the period. Pasadena Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Azul in the fourth quarter valued at about $73,000. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its position in shares of Azul by 20.5% in the third quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,881,706 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,314,000 after purchasing an additional 319,578 shares during the period. 2.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Azul Company Profile

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Azul SA is a holding company, which engages in the provision of airline passenger and cargo services. The firm’s service features include passenger seat selection, leather seats, individual entertainment screens with free live television at every seat in all E-Jets, extensive legroom with a pitch of 30 inches or more, complimentary beverage and snack services and free bus service to key airports.