Originally Posted by
NightIP
Oh, and XJT is one of the very few airline stocks to actually show a gain today (+11%). Somethin's a brewin'!
I think you are right that something's brewing, but for the wrong reasons. The press release of the Q3 results was issued at 9:55 pm ET on a Friday. Not exactly the time you would release results if you wanted attention on them. After looking at the release it seems apparent why ExpressJet was hoping this would get overlooked during the weekend. The loss was double what Wall Street was looking for and yields were flat from Q2. The increase in load factor is encouraging, but the yields need to pick up considerably for the branded operation to succeed.
The runup of XJT stock on Friday may have been nothing more than people expecting an upside surprise from the earnings release that evening. Other airlines posted good numbers, and people might have been hoping to get in front of the same from XJT.
If you really want to find out what's brewing, look at the detailed results which will be released Monday, and listen to the conference call. Where XJT closes on Monday will be a much better indicator of what Wall Street thought of the last quarter and of future prospects.
P.S. Sorry to sound so negative. l have several friends at XJT, so I'm hoping for the airline to succeed.