Brokerages Set Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:RYAAY) Price Target at $73.50

Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:RYAAY) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $73.50.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on RYAAY. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “market perform” rating and set a $71.00 price target on shares of Ryanair in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Ryanair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, January 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Ryanair in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Zacks Research lowered Ryanair from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Ryanair from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th.

Ryanair Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ RYAAY opened at $63.94 on Thursday. Ryanair has a fifty-two week low of $38.52 and a fifty-two week high of $74.24. The company has a market cap of $33.52 billion, a PE ratio of 12.84, a P/E/G ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.67. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $67.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $65.11.

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 firm had revenue of $3.77 billion during 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%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ryanair will post 3.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ryanair Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a special dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Friday, January 16th were issued a dividend of $0.4545 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 16th. Ryanair’s payout ratio is 14.26%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ryanair

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 861,361 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in shares of Ryanair by 94.1% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 174,323 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $10,053,000 after purchasing an additional 84,511 shares during the last quarter. Freestone Capital Holdings LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ryanair during the second quarter worth $214,000. Ovata Capital Management Ltd acquired a new position in Ryanair during the second quarter valued at $24,705,000. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. lifted its position in Ryanair by 18.7% during the second quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 21,537 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,242,000 after purchasing an additional 3,400 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.