For today's edition of our upgrade list, we used our website's advanced screening functions to search for UPGRADES to BUY or STRONG BUY with complete forecast and valuation data. They are presented by one-month forecast return. JetBlue is rated a STRONG BUY. The rest of today's upgrades are rated BUY.

For today's bulletin, we take a look at JetBlue Airways Corporation (JBLU). JetBlue Airways Corporation is a low-fare, low-cost passenger airline, which provides high-quality customer service primarily on point-to-point routes and is based in New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. .JetBlue carries more than 38 million customers a year to 101 cities in the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America with an average of 1,000 daily flights.

JetBlue is one of those airlines passengers either love, or hate. Low cost, but low frills. And, like so many airlines these days, the company is constantly trying to squeeze more money from ever more-crowded planes where passengers are --literally-- being squeezed more-and-more with every new seating arrangement.

We've seen some good days for airlines over the past year or two, as their money-making schemes increase the bottom line. However, JetBlue did not necessarily reflect this in their last quarterly earnings report. Back in October, the company reported operating income of $310 million, a decrease of 12.4% from the third quarter of 2016. Pre-tax income of $293 million, a decrease of 11.2% from the third quarter of 2016. Third quarter net income of $179 million, or $0.55 per diluted share. This compares to JetBlue’s third quarter 2016 net income of $199 million, or $0.58 per diluted share.

Company CEO Robin Hayes had a variety of explanations for this reduced performance. Hayes noted that

third quarter results were impacted by two hurricanes that reduced our EPS by approximately 6 cents. We are confident that the adjustments we are making to our network will limit any ongoing financial impact in 2018. Despite the short-term challenges, we remain focused on our long-term margin commitments to our shareholders. I’d like to thank our 21,000 Crew members in our operation and support centers, who successfully managed the unprecedented challenge of over 30 consecutive days of irregular operations

Looking forward to the next quarter and the rest of the year, JetBlue management expects capacity to increase between 4.5% and 5.5% year over year in the fourth quarter 2017. For the full year 2017, JetBlue expects capacity to increase between 4.0% and 5.0%. Revenue per available seat mile (RASM) growth is expected to range between (3.0%) and 0.0% for the fourth quarter 2017 compared to the same period in 2016. Cost per available seat mile (CASM) excluding fuel is expected to grow between 5.0% and 7.0% for the fourth quarter of 2017. For the full year 2017, JetBlue expects year over year CASM excluding fuel to grow between 4.0% and 5.0%.

Below is our latest data for JetBlue Airways Corporation (JBLU):

ValuEngine updated its recommendation from BUY to STRONG BUY for JETBLUE AIRWAYS on 2017-12-11. Based on the information we have gathered and our resulting research, we feel that JETBLUE AIRWAYS has the probability to OUTPERFORM average market performance for the next year. The company exhibits ATTRACTIVE P/E Ratio and Sharpe Ratio.
 

Valuation & Rankings
Valuation	18.80% overvalued	Valuation Rank(?)	24
1-M Forecast Return	1.09%	1-M Forecast Return Rank	99
12-M Return	2.64%	Momentum Rank(?)	43
Sharpe Ratio	0.94	Sharpe Ratio Rank(?)	88
5-Y Avg Annual Return	28.59%	5-Y Avg Annual Rtn Rank	93
Volatility	30.51%	Volatility Rank(?)	51
Expected EPS Growth	1.48%	EPS Growth Rank(?)	21
Market Cap (billions)	6.48	Size Rank	84
Trailing P/E Ratio	12.28	Trailing P/E Rank(?)	88
Forward P/E Ratio	12.10	Forward P/E Ratio Rank	75
PEG Ratio	8.32	PEG Ratio Rank	4
Price/Sales	0.94	Price/Sales Rank(?)	72
Market/Book	1.56	Market/Book Rank(?)	65
Beta	0.66	Beta Rank	56
Alpha	-0.06	Alpha Rank	42