Short Interest in Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:RYAAY) Expands By 32.6%

Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:RYAAY) saw a large increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 2,175,860 shares, an increase of 32.6% from the March 15th total of 1,640,387 shares. Approximately 0.4% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,692,672 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.3 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

RYAAY has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Zacks Research downgraded Ryanair from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Ryanair in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Ryanair in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Evercore raised Ryanair from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Ryanair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 25th. One equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $75.67.

Ryanair Stock Down 7.4%

RYAAY stock traded down $4.59 during trading on Thursday, hitting $57.38. 1,763,872 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,490,462. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $62.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $65.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.52, a PEG ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.26. Ryanair has a 52-week low of $44.51 and a 52-week high of $74.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02.

Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 26th. The transportation company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $3.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.16 billion. Ryanair had a return on equity of 29.76% and a net margin of 15.04%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ryanair will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ryanair

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in RYAAY. LVW Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Ryanair by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 6,276 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $453,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd raised its stake in shares of Ryanair by 39.4% during the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 584 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. One Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Ryanair by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. One Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,225 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $449,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ryanair by 3.8% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 5,043 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $304,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Ryanair by 41.7% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 669 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.