Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) Insider Darrell Thomas Hughes Sells 8,197 Shares

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

Ryanair Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of Ryanair stock traded up $0.53 on Thursday, hitting $57.42. 1,660,166 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,520,157. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $58.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $64.54. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. Ryanair Holdings PLC has a 52 week low of $53.14 and a 52 week high of $74.24. 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 (NASDAQ:RYAAY) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 18th. The transportation company reported ($0.86) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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. Equities research analysts predict that Ryanair Holdings PLC will post 4.72 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Ryanair

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of RYAAY. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Ryanair by 658.1% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 992,245 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $42,041,000 after buying an additional 861,361 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Ryanair by 122.1% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 13,011 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $750,000 after purchasing an additional 7,152 shares during the last quarter. CW Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ryanair in the second quarter valued at about $263,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Ryanair by 99.7% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,029 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $117,000 after purchasing an additional 1,013 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC purchased a new position in Ryanair in the second quarter valued at about $295,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 43.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on RYAAY. Weiss Ratings cut Ryanair from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, April 6th. Erste Group Bank cut Ryanair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Ryanair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 25th. Evercore raised shares of Ryanair from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Ryanair from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. One equities research 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 issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.67.

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.