Azul S.A. (NYSE:AZUL) Short Interest Up 32.0% in May

Azul S.A. (NYSE:AZUL) was the target of a large growth in short interest in May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 20,900,000 shares, a growth of 32.0% from the April 30th total of 15,830,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 5,660,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.7 days. Approximately 5.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Azul Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AZUL opened at $0.50 on Wednesday. Azul has a 12 month low of $0.45 and a 12 month high of $5.51. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $1.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $1.68. The company has a market cap of $210.79 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.07 and a beta of 1.88.

Azul (NYSE:AZUL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 15th. The company reported ($2.18) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.03 by ($2.21). The company had revenue of $923.68 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.31 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Azul will post -1.58 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AZUL. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Azul by 16.3% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 63,338 shares of the company’s stock valued at $106,000 after acquiring an additional 8,899 shares during the last quarter. Trellis Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Azul in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Azul in the fourth quarter worth about $117,000. Inspire Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Azul by 16.6% in the fourth quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 48,168 shares of the company’s stock worth $80,000 after purchasing an additional 6,844 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fore Capital LLC bought a new stake in Azul in the fourth quarter worth about $167,000. Institutional investors own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Azul from $2.70 to $2.40 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Raymond James lowered Azul from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered Azul from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on Azul from $4.50 to $0.50 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $3.32.

About Azul

Azul SA, together with its subsidiaries, provides air transportation services in Brazil and internationally. As of December 31, 2023, the company operated approximately 1,000 daily departures to 160 destinations through a network of 300 non-stop routes with an operating fleet of 183 aircraft and a passenger contractual fleet of 189 aircraft.