Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) Upgraded at Citigroup

Citigroup upgraded shares of Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Friday, Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on RYAAY. UBS Group downgraded Ryanair from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Ryanair from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Ryanair to a hold rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. HSBC cut shares of Ryanair from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Ryanair from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an in-line rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $158.50.

Ryanair Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:RYAAY traded down $1.33 during trading on Friday, hitting $97.15. The company had a trading volume of 918,492 shares, compared to its average volume of 643,959. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $114.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $129.34. Ryanair has a one year low of $87.18 and a one year high of $150.73. The stock has a market cap of $21.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.93.

Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 20th. The transportation company reported ($1.31) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.32) by $0.01. Ryanair had a net margin of 12.07% and a return on equity of 20.43%. The firm had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.33 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ryanair will post 7.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Ryanair Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a Variable dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.692 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. This represents a dividend yield of 1.8%. Ryanair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.20%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ryanair

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in RYAAY. Gallacher Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ryanair by 4.1% during the second quarter. Gallacher Capital Management LLC now owns 3,796 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $442,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Comgest Global Investors S.A.S. raised its stake in shares of Ryanair by 15.0% during the 2nd quarter. Comgest Global Investors S.A.S. now owns 148,395 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $17,279,000 after buying an additional 19,394 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Ryanair during the second quarter worth about $5,013,000. Cortland Associates Inc. MO raised its position in Ryanair by 0.3% during the second quarter. Cortland Associates Inc. MO now owns 181,756 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $21,164,000 after acquiring an additional 582 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new position in Ryanair in the second quarter valued at approximately $50,000. 43.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ryanair Company Profile

Ryanair Holdings plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides scheduled-passenger airline services in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and internationally. It is also involved in the provision of various ancillary services, such as non-flight scheduled and Internet-related services, as well as in-flight sale of beverages, food, duty-free, and merchandise; and markets car hire, travel insurance, and accommodation services through its website and mobile app.