SAVE has been climbing the charts in recent months
Spirit Airlines Incorporated (NYSE:SAVE) traded as high as $47.50 this morning -- filling up on analyst bull notes and better-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue amid lower fuel costs. Three price-target hikes have surfaced, the highest coming from Deutsche Bank to $55 from $49. While the shares nabbed a six-month high out of the gate, they have since pared away those gains and were last seen down 0.1% to trade at $44.38.
In recent months, SAVE has been on an upswing, now 36% higher than its early October bottom. Spirit stock on Monday also pushed above the 200-day ceiling, and despite today's pivot lower is still up 11% year-to-date.
Shorts are still piling on, as short interest on Spirit Airlines grew 16.9% during the most recent reporting period, and now accounts 10.1% of the stock's total available float. At the equity's average pace of daily trading, it would take these bearish bettors more than six days to buy back their bets.
Circling back to analyst attention, nine of 14 covering firms sport a "buy" or better recommendation, while four sport a tepid "hold," and just one carries a "sell." The stock's average 12-month price target comes in at $49.80, or 11.1% above current trading levels.