Azul (NYSE:AZUL) Raised to Buy at The Goldman Sachs Group

Azul (NYSE:AZUL) was upgraded by stock analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, FlyOnTheWall reports.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Azul from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Barclays upgraded shares of Azul from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $8.00 to $14.00 in a report on Monday, July 10th. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Azul from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 14th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Azul from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $6.90 to $11.00 in a report on Monday, May 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.70.

Azul Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AZUL traded down $0.31 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $8.27. The stock had a trading volume of 723,755 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,619,059. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $9.92 and its 200 day moving average is $9.22. Azul has a 52 week low of $3.82 and a 52 week high of $13.86. The stock has a market cap of $3.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.98 and a beta of 1.48.

Azul (NYSE:AZUL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 10th. The company reported ($0.81) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.70) by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $862.66 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $908.32 million. On average, research analysts forecast that Azul will post -1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Azul

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. US Bancorp DE grew its position in Azul by 721.4% during the second quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,922 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 1,688 shares during the period. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. boosted its position in Azul by 83.9% during the first quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 2,630 shares of the company’s stock worth $151,000 after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares during the period. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. bought a new position in Azul during the second quarter worth about $39,000. UBS Group AG boosted its position in Azul by 930.7% during the second quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,628 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 3,276 shares during the period. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its position in Azul by 697.6% during the first quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 6,915 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 6,048 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 1.56% of the company’s stock.

About Azul

Azul SA, together with its subsidiaries, provides scheduled air transportation services in Brazil. As of December 31, 2022, the company operated approximately 1,000 daily departures to 158 destinations through a network of 300 non-stop routes with an operating fleet of 177 aircraft and a passenger contractual fleet of 194 aircraft.