Erste Group Bank Downgrades Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) to Hold

Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) was downgraded by Erste Group Bank from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports.

RYAAY has been the subject of a number of other reports. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Ryanair in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating on shares of Ryanair in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Ryanair in a report on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Ryanair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, January 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating on shares of Ryanair in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $73.50.

Ryanair Trading Down 2.8%

Shares of Ryanair stock opened at $64.15 on Wednesday. Ryanair has a 52-week low of $38.52 and a 52-week high of $74.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.68 billion, a PE ratio of 12.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $69.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $65.13.

Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) last issued its earnings results on Monday, January 26th. The transportation company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $3.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.16 billion. Ryanair had a net margin of 15.04% and a return on equity of 29.76%. On average, analysts expect that Ryanair will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ryanair

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in RYAAY. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Ryanair by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 96,337 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $6,955,000 after purchasing an additional 6,331 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ryanair in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $235,000. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its position in shares of Ryanair by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 42,238 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $3,049,000 after acquiring an additional 413 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ryanair by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 20,873 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,507,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Ryanair by 58.0% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,895,021 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $281,182,000 after purchasing an additional 1,429,666 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.