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

American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) was upgraded by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Monday, MarketBeat.com 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 suggests a potential upside of 13.06% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on AAL. UBS Group upgraded shares of American Airlines Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on American Airlines Group from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Bank of America boosted their price target on American Airlines Group from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of American Airlines Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $14.00 to $24.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Scotiabank raised American Airlines Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.10.

American Airlines Group Trading Up 1.0 %

American Airlines Group stock opened at $17.69 on Monday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $15.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $12.58. The stock has a market cap of $11.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 1.35. American Airlines Group has a 12-month low of $9.07 and a 12-month high of $18.20.

American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $13.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.50 billion. American Airlines Group had a negative return on equity of 18.62% and a net margin of 0.51%. The business’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.38 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that American Airlines Group will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at American Airlines Group

In other news, CEO Robert D. Isom, Jr. sold 102,441 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 27th. The stock was 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 approximately $51,079,004.64. This represents a 3.34 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of American Airlines Group

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of American Airlines Group by 56.2% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,533 shares of the airline’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 911 shares in the last quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in American Airlines Group during the second quarter worth about $36,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in American Airlines Group during the third quarter worth about $55,000. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in American Airlines Group by 55.8% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 6,152 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 2,204 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of American Airlines Group by 44.3% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 9,932 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $112,000 after purchasing an additional 3,047 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 52.44% of the company’s stock.

About American Airlines Group

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.