Insider Selling: Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) CEO Sells 13,467 Shares of Stock

Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:RYAAY) CEO Andreas Gruber sold 13,467 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.01, for a total transaction of $350,276.67. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 20,858 shares in the company, valued at $542,516.58. The trade was a 39.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Ryanair Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:RYAAY traded up $0.53 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $57.42. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,660,166 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,520,157. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.19, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.13. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $64.57. Ryanair Holdings PLC has a fifty-two week low of $53.14 and a fifty-two week high of $74.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.90.

Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 18th. The transportation company reported ($0.86) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.95) by $0.09. The company had revenue of $2.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.08 billion. Ryanair had a return on equity of 25.58% and a net margin of 13.95%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ryanair Holdings PLC will post 4.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on RYAAY shares. Weiss Ratings downgraded Ryanair from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Evercore raised 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. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Ryanair in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Ryanair in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised Ryanair from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ryanair currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $75.67.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ryanair

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital International Investors grew its position in Ryanair by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 39,929,929 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,884,834,000 after buying an additional 2,464,742 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Ryanair by 1.0% during 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 in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Ryanair by 15.6% during 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 in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in Ryanair by 3.3% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,752,264 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $332,480,000 after purchasing an additional 185,110 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Metropolis Capital Ltd boosted its holdings in Ryanair by 10.8% during the first quarter. Metropolis Capital Ltd now owns 3,949,246 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $228,266,000 after purchasing an additional 385,444 shares in the last quarter. 43.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Ryanair

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.