American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) Stock Rating Upgraded by Jefferies Financial Group

American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) was upgraded by stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage presently has a $20.00 price target on the airline’s stock, up from their prior price target of $12.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target points to a potential upside of 17.86% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on AAL. Bank of America increased their target price on American Airlines Group from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Raymond James raised shares of American Airlines Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $24.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of American Airlines Group from $15.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. UBS Group upgraded American Airlines Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded American Airlines Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $20.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.26.

American Airlines Group Stock Performance

Shares of American Airlines Group stock opened at $16.97 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $11.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 1.41. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.53. American Airlines Group has a twelve month low of $9.07 and a twelve month high of $18.20.

American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $13.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.50 billion. American Airlines Group had a negative return on equity of 18.62% and a net margin of 0.51%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.38 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that American Airlines Group will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Robert D. Isom, Jr. sold 102,441 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.21, for a total transaction of $1,763,009.61. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,967,984 shares in the company, valued at $51,079,004.64. This trade represents a 3.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of American Airlines Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of American Airlines Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $409,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in American Airlines Group by 107.6% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,519,904 shares of the airline’s stock worth $17,084,000 after buying an additional 787,671 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama raised its position in American Airlines Group by 451.2% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 797,738 shares of the airline’s stock worth $8,967,000 after acquiring an additional 653,012 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in American Airlines Group by 63.1% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 66,249 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $745,000 after acquiring an additional 25,637 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky increased its stake in shares of American Airlines Group by 162.6% during the 3rd quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 140,255 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,576,000 after purchasing an additional 86,847 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.44% of the company’s stock.

American Airlines Group Company Profile

American Airlines Group Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates as a network air carrier. The company provides scheduled air transportation services for passengers and cargo through its hubs in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Washington, DC, as well as through partner gateways in London, Doha, Madrid, Seattle/Tacoma, Sydney, and Tokyo.