Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) Shares Gap Down – What’s Next?

Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:RYAAY)’s share price gapped down before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $61.97, but opened at $59.58. Ryanair shares last traded at $58.6790, with a volume of 238,587 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RYAAY has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Ryanair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, January 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating on shares of Ryanair in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Ryanair in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Evercore raised shares of Ryanair from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Ryanair from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $75.67.

Ryanair Trading Down 5.6%

The firm has a market cap of $30.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $62.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.21.

Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 26th. The transportation company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $3.77 billion for 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, analysts expect that Ryanair Holdings PLC will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Ryanair

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital International Investors raised its position in Ryanair by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 39,929,929 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,884,834,000 after acquiring an additional 2,464,742 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Ryanair by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 31,051,257 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $2,241,612,000 after purchasing an additional 312,323 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Ryanair by 15.6% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,304,889 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $527,341,000 after purchasing an additional 985,939 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of Ryanair by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,567,154 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $401,892,000 after purchasing an additional 117,639 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Ryanair by 58.0% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,895,021 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $281,182,000 after purchasing an additional 1,429,666 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.