Benzinga | Jan 7, 2022 01:08PM EST

BofA Turns Bullish On Frontier Group Amid Airline Ratings Shake-Up

* BofA analyst Andrew Didora upgraded Frontier Group Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:ULCC) to Buy from Neutral and lowered the price target to $18 (an upside of 28%), from $19, as he contends that poor investor sentiment in the airlines could set the stage for a trade higher in the first half of this year.

* "Times of poor sentiment are usually good times to buy airline stocks," the analyst argues.

* Didora upgrade of Frontier is paired with a downgrade of Allegiant Travel Co (NASDAQ:ALGT) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $200 (an upside of 13%), down from $225.

* The analyst sees heightened cost risk given Allegiant's recent Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) 737 MAX order and prefers exposure to mainline carriers.

* Price Action: ULCC shares are trading higher by 2.71% at $14.00, and ALGT is down by 0.53% at $176.66 on the last check Friday.