Cowen and Co. analyst Helane Becker on Wednesday upgraded JetBlue to outperform from market perform and raised her target price to $15 from $10. "Our upgrade hinges on JetBlue re-working its model to increase profitability," Becker wrote. "This may include a management change. ... We believe JetBlue could make a management change at the top in order to foster a change in strategy throughout the company.
"Given the company's long history of underperformance in margins and in ROIC, we believe a management change is almost inevitable," she said.
A first bag fee would add 26 cents to annual earnings per share, Becker concluded. Charging for Wi-Fi, now free, would add 9 cents. And adding 12 seats to each A320 -- cutting back on legroom in coach -- would add 18 cents. That "might hurt JetBlue in the media (but) the revenue benefit to the company would probably trump any customer push back," she wrote.