Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) Lowered to “Hold” Rating by Zacks Research

Zacks Research cut shares of Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

RYAAY has been the subject of several other research reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Ryanair from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen downgraded Ryanair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, January 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Ryanair in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $71.00 price target on shares of Ryanair in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Ryanair in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ryanair presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $73.50.

Ryanair Price Performance

RYAAY opened at $69.63 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $36.51 billion, a PE ratio of 13.98, a P/E/G ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $69.49 and a 200-day moving average price of $65.20. Ryanair has a 1 year low of $38.52 and a 1 year high of $74.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 26th. The transportation company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $3.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.16 billion. Ryanair had a net margin of 15.04% and a return on equity of 29.76%. Sell-side analysts predict that Ryanair will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ryanair Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a special dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 16th will be paid a $0.4545 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 16th. Ryanair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 14.06%.

Institutional Trading of Ryanair

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ryanair by 658.1% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 992,245 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $42,041,000 after purchasing an additional 861,361 shares during the period. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its position in Ryanair by 84.6% in the second quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 2,993 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $173,000 after acquiring an additional 1,372 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. raised its position in Ryanair by 37.5% in the second quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 107,811 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $6,217,000 after acquiring an additional 29,380 shares during the period. GAM Holding AG purchased a new position in shares of Ryanair during the 2nd quarter worth $3,414,000. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can grew its position in shares of Ryanair by 94.1% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 174,323 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $10,053,000 after acquiring an additional 84,511 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 43.66% of the company’s stock.

Ryanair Company Profile

Ryanair Holdings plc is an Irish low-cost airline group headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1984, the company grew into one of Europe’s largest budget carriers by offering point-to-point scheduled passenger services with an emphasis on low fares, high aircraft utilization and rapid turnaround times. Ryanair serves a broad network across Europe and nearby regions, focusing on both intra-European leisure travel and short-haul business routes.

The group primarily operates a single-type fleet based on the Boeing 737 family, supplemented by a mix of in-house and subsidiary airlines that help serve different markets and regulatory environments.