Willis Lease Finance (NASDAQ:WLFC) Rating Increased to Hold at Zacks Research

Willis Lease Finance (NASDAQ:WLFC) was upgraded by stock analysts at Zacks Research to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Zacks reports.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Weiss Ratings cut Willis Lease Finance from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. UBS Group set a $71.00 price target on Willis Lease Finance in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $80.00 price target on shares of Willis Lease Finance and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Freedom Capital raised Willis Lease Finance from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $75.50.

Willis Lease Finance Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WLFC opened at $56.19 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a current ratio of 1.63. Willis Lease Finance has a fifty-two week low of $38.00 and a fifty-two week high of $81.54. The firm has a market cap of $1.19 billion, a PE ratio of 14.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.72. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $65.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $64.49.

Willis Lease Finance (NASDAQ:WLFC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The transportation company reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.41. Willis Lease Finance had a net margin of 11.80% and a return on equity of 14.11%. The company had revenue of $192.83 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $175.00 million. Equities research analysts predict that Willis Lease Finance will post 5.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Austin Willis sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.90, for a total transaction of $808,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 420,888 shares in the company, valued at $22,685,863.20. This trade represents a 3.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Charles Willis, IV sold 15,600 shares of Willis Lease Finance stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.11, for a total value of $859,716.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman directly owned 2,492,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $137,342,000.73. This represents a 0.62% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 197,252 shares of company stock worth $11,565,300. Insiders own 53.32% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WLFC. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in Willis Lease Finance by 27,701.6% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 750,922 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $171,811,000 after purchasing an additional 748,221 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Willis Lease Finance during the second quarter valued at $68,932,000. Four Tree Island Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Willis Lease Finance during the second quarter valued at $24,747,000. Two Sigma Investments LP boosted its position in shares of Willis Lease Finance by 9.8% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 101,386 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $13,899,000 after buying an additional 9,052 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG increased its holdings in Willis Lease Finance by 15.0% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 92,194 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $12,639,000 after buying an additional 12,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.70% of the company’s stock.

Willis Lease Finance Company Profile

Willis Lease Finance Corporation (NASDAQ: WLFC) is an independent global provider of aircraft engine leasing, trading and aftermarket services. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in the United States, the company specializes in offering short- and long-term operating leases for jet engines and auxiliary power units. Through its broad engine portfolio, Willis Lease Finance supports a wide range of commercial aircraft across various operators, including major airlines, regional carriers and other leasing companies.

In addition to leasing solutions, Willis Lease Finance offers comprehensive engine trading and asset management services.