By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com -- Shares of Spirit Airlines (NYSE:SAVE) were up in Tuesday’s premarket a day after the company guided for a “modestly positive” EBITDA in the ongoing second quarter.
Spirit had posted an adjusted non-GAAP negative EBITDA of $199.7 million in the first quarter of 2021 as airline traffic remained below par because of the pandemic.
The positive outlook won an upgrade from Citi to a buy. The brokerage sees the airline at $42, a 23.5% upside from its closing of $34 on Monday.
Spirit said its plant load factor for the current quarter will be about 84%, in line with the performance achieved in second quarter of 2019, a pre-COVID era.
The company expects air travel demand to continue to gradually recover in 2021.
According to Citi analyst Stephen Trent, even ignoring the forecast adjustments, shares looked attractive after an 8% decline since March.