Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) Insider Sells $213,203.97 in Stock

Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:RYAAY) insider Darrell Thomas Hughes sold 8,197 shares of Ryanair stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.01, for a total value of $213,203.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 37,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $971,785.62. This represents a 17.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Ryanair Trading Up 0.9%

RYAAY traded up $0.53 on Thursday, hitting $57.42. The company had a trading volume of 1,660,166 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,520,157. The company has a market cap of $29.90 billion, a PE ratio of 12.19, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.13. Ryanair Holdings PLC has a 12-month low of $53.14 and a 12-month high of $74.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $64.54.

Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 18th. The transportation company reported ($0.86) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.95) by $0.09. Ryanair had a return on equity of 25.58% and a net margin of 13.95%.The company had revenue of $2.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.08 billion. Equities research analysts expect that Ryanair Holdings PLC will post 4.72 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on RYAAY shares. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Ryanair in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Ryanair from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Zacks Research cut shares of Ryanair from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Ryanair in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Ryanair from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, April 6th. One 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 data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $75.67.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ryanair

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of Ryanair by 9.0% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,052,677 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $118,645,000 after buying an additional 170,242 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of Ryanair by 3.3% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,752,264 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $332,480,000 after purchasing an additional 185,110 shares during the period. Strategic Investment Advisors MI boosted its stake in shares of Ryanair by 4.9% during the first quarter. Strategic Investment Advisors MI now owns 3,965 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $230,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the period. Amundi purchased a new stake in shares of Ryanair during the first quarter valued at $349,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ryanair by 30.8% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,443 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $199,000 after purchasing an additional 811 shares during the period. 43.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Ryanair

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.