Andreas Gruber Sells 13,467 Shares of Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) Stock

Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:RYAAY) CEO Andreas Gruber sold 13,467 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.01, for a total transaction of $350,276.67. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 20,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $542,516.58. The trade was a 39.23% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Ryanair Trading Up 3.8%

Shares of RYAAY stock opened at $59.62 on Friday. Ryanair Holdings PLC has a 1 year low of $53.14 and a 1 year high of $74.24. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $58.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $64.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The company has a market cap of $31.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.66, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.13.

Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 18th. The transportation company reported ($0.86) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.95) by $0.09. Ryanair had a net margin of 13.95% and a return on equity of 25.58%. The firm had revenue of $2.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.08 billion. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ryanair Holdings PLC will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

RYAAY has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Evercore raised shares of Ryanair from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Ryanair from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Ryanair from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Ryanair in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Ryanair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, January 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.67.

Key Stories Impacting Ryanair

Here are the key news stories impacting Ryanair this week:

• Neutral Sentiment: Multiple Ryanair insiders sold shares, but the company said the transactions were related to tax withholding on vested equity awards, suggesting the activity may be routine rather than a negative signal. CEO Andreas Gruber sale filing
• Neutral Sentiment: Ryanair also reported a mixed quarterly update: earnings per share beat estimates, but revenue came in below expectations, leaving investors with a balanced read on operating performance. Ryanair earnings and stock information
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain generally constructive on Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: RYAAY), with several firms reiterating bullish ratings and an overall “Moderate Buy” consensus, which may be supporting the stock. Analyst ratings overview

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of RYAAY. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in Ryanair by 645,657.4% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 2,789,672 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $201,386,000 after buying an additional 2,789,240 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Ryanair by 9.3% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 30,738,934 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,851,043,000 after buying an additional 2,626,911 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Ryanair by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 39,929,929 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,884,834,000 after buying an additional 2,464,742 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Ryanair by 58.0% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,895,021 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $281,182,000 after buying an additional 1,429,666 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Ryanair in the 4th quarter worth $91,970,000. 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.