Stifel Analyst Explains Downgrade Of JetBlue And American Airlines

Joe DeNardi, the managing director of Stifel, spoke on CNBC's "Power Lunch" about Stifel's downgrade of JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ: JBLU) and American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ: AAL).

DeNardi said there are too many unknowns at the moment to recommend the airline stocks.

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He explained the financing from the government is going to come in two primary buckets. One bucket is going to be the payroll support or labor reimbursement and in the analyst's opinion every airline company is likely going to apply for it. The second bucket would be the access to credit and not every airline is going to need that kind of funding equally.

DeNardi said the terms of accessing credit would certainly include equity as an compensation for the government. He added it all comes down to the duration of the impact on the revenue from the outbreak. The longer this goes on, the more capital certain airlines are going to need, the less leverage they're going to have in negotiating the terms and the more costly and dilutive this is going to be for the shareholders.