easyJet share price: JPMorgan no longer ‘overweight’ on airline

Shares in easyJet (LON:EZJ) underperformed the London market on Friday as JPMorgan lowered its rating on the blue-chip carrier. The move came as the analysts weighed in on European low-cost airlines.

easyJet’s share price closed 0.26 percent higher at 1,172.00p in the previous session, underperforming the benchmark FTSE 100 index which gained 133.41 points to close 1.95 percent higher at 6,968.33, boosted by US-China trade relations optimism. The group’s shares have given up more than 22 percent of their value over the past year, as compared with a near 10-percent fall in the Footsie.

JPMorgan trims rating on easyJet

JPMorgan Chase & Co trimmed its rating on easyJet from ‘overweight’ to ‘neutral’ on Friday, also lowering its price target on the shares from 1,800p to 1,450p. The broker, however, reiterated its ‘overweight’ stance on low-cost rivals Ryanair and Wizzair.

“We consider all three to be long-term winners in the airline industry, with solid structural growth prospects,” the broker explained, as quoted by Proactive Investors, adding that while it thought that easyJet and Ryanair had similar upside potential, tactically, the recent underperformance of the Ryanair presented a ‘mean reversion opportunity,’ hence their downgrade of easyJet.

Other analysts on low-cost carrier

UBS meanwhile reaffirmed easyJet as a ‘neutral’ on Friday, without specifying a price target on the shares, while on Thursday, Barclays trimmed its stance on the company to ‘underweight,’ lowering its valuation on the stock from 1,500p to 1,200p. Proactive investors quoted the broker saying that the growth profile for easyJet lacked “some momentum in our view, not helped by difficult comparables and possible UK demand related risk”.

According to MarketBeat, the budget carrier currently has a consensus ‘hold’ rating and an average price target of 1,500.56p.

As of 08:05 GMT, Monday, 21 January, easyJet plc share price is 1,172.00p.