William Blair Investment Management LLC Purchases Shares of 50,868 Ryanair Holdings PLC $RYAAY

William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:RYAAY) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 50,868 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,672,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of RYAAY. LVW Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ryanair by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 6,276 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $453,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the period. One Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Ryanair by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. One Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,225 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $449,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares during the period. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ryanair by 76.0% in the third quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 484 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 209 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ryanair by 3.9% in the second quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 5,834 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $336,000 after acquiring an additional 217 shares during the period. Finally, Rehmann Capital Advisory Group boosted its position in shares of Ryanair by 3.9% in the third quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 6,623 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $399,000 after acquiring an additional 247 shares during the period. 43.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ryanair Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ RYAAY opened at $60.29 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $64.44. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.80, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.13. Ryanair Holdings PLC has a one year low of $53.14 and a one year high of $74.24.

Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 19th. The transportation company reported ($0.86) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.95) by $0.09. The business had revenue of $2.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.08 billion. Ryanair had a return on equity of 25.58% and a net margin of 13.95%. Sell-side analysts expect that Ryanair Holdings PLC will post 4.51 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on RYAAY. Sanford C. Bernstein raised 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. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Ryanair in a research report on Tuesday, May 19th. Erste Group Bank cut Ryanair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, Evercore raised 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $75.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Juliusz Grzegorz Komorek sold 14,053 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.01, for a total value of $365,518.53. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 46,264 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,203,326.64. This represents a 23.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Andreas Gruber sold 13,467 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.01, for a total value of $350,276.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 20,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $542,516.58. The trade was a 39.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 111,607 shares of company stock valued at $2,918,397 in the last ninety days.

Ryanair 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.