MidnightTrader’s Earnings Play: JetBlue (JBLU)

JetBlue
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JBLU |
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PowerRating)
is due with its Q1 results in the pre-market on Tuesday, April 22, and analysts polled by Thomson First Call expect the company to report a loss of $0.07 per share on revenue of $786 million.

Trading in JBLU following the news in tomorrow’s pre-market will be active as traders tend to take advantage of the news ahead of the opening bell. As you can see from just the recent earnings reaction history, the early bird gets the worm.

In looking back at the last two years of performance between the sessions, JBLU is holding a decent widening pattern, recording more aggressive follow-on regular session percentage trade on the heels of six of its last eight earnings-driven pre-market moves. In other words, trade the trend in tomorrow’s pre-market.

On Jan. 29, 2008, JBLU gained 6.4% in pre-market trade after reporting Q4 results ahead of expectations. It soared in the Jan. 29 regular session, rising 20.2% by the closing bell.

On Oct. 23, 2007, JBLU firmed 4.2% in pre-market trade after topping Q3 earnings expectations. It edged back just a bit in the following regular session, closing bell-to-bell trade up a more modest 4%.

On July 24, 2007, the stock edged down 0.4% in the pre-market session despite reporting results that were improved from the same period a year earlier. The loss was a deeper 2.5% by the closing bell later that day.

On April 24, 2007, JBLU edged up just 0.1% in pre-market trade after reporting higher year-over-year revenue and a narrower loss. It slipped into the red in the regular session, declining 2.5% by the close.

Brooks McFeely is widely regarded as the leading expert on extended-hours trading. He is a Managing Partner for Brochet Capital Partners, LP and the founder of Midnight Trader, Inc. (www.midnighttrader.com), the leading provider of pre-market and after-hours trading analysis and news to retail and institutional investors.