NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of American Airlines were gaining 1.5% to $48.45 Monday after competitor airline JetBlue Airways announced its March passenger traffic numbers. JetBlue said that passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) increased 8% in March. The airline expects its PRASM to increase by 4.5% in the first quarter of 2015, up from its previous guidance of a 3% to 4% increase in the quarter. The airline said that total passenger numbers gres9.2% from the year-ago month to 3 million in March 2015. JetBlue's departures increased 5.2% to 26,400 in the month of March. JetBlue's positive traffic numbers for March and its increase PRASM guidance for the first quarter helped bring up shares of other airlines including American Airlines. Shares of JetBlue were gaining 5.9% to $20.16 following the traffic numbers. TheStreet Ratings team rates AMERICAN AIRLINES GROUP INC as a Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate AMERICAN AIRLINES GROUP INC (AAL) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed -- some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its notable return on equity, robust revenue growth and solid stock price performance. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including generally higher debt management risk and poor profit margins." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: Compared to other companies in the Airlines industry and the overall market, AMERICAN AIRLINES GROUP INC's return on equity significantly exceeds that of both the industry average and the S&P 500. The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 22.4%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 38.5%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share. Net operating cash flow has significantly increased by 171.27% to $804.00 million when compared to the same quarter last year. Despite an increase in cash flow of 171.27%, AMERICAN AIRLINES GROUP INC is still growing at a significantly lower rate than the industry average of 4170.57%. The gross profit margin for AMERICAN AIRLINES GROUP INC is currently lower than what is desirable, coming in at 32.26%. Regardless of AAL's low profit margin, it has managed to increase from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, AAL's net profit margin of 5.87% compares favorably to the industry average. The debt-to-equity ratio is very high at 8.86 and currently higher than the industry average, implying increased risk associated with the management of debt levels within the company. Along with the unfavorable debt-to-equity ratio, AAL maintains a poor quick ratio of 0.73, which illustrates the inability to avoid short-term cash problems. You can view the full analysis from the report here: AAL Ratings Report Must Read: Warren Buffett's Top 25 Stocks for 2015
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