Blair William & Co. IL Sells 207 Shares of AerCap Holdings (NYSE:AER)

Blair William & Co. IL lowered its stake in shares of AerCap Holdings (NYSE:AER) by 4.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,789 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 207 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in AerCap were worth $458,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of AerCap by 43.3% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,599,032 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $153,027,000 after purchasing an additional 483,428 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in AerCap by 8.5% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 140,104 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $13,440,000 after buying an additional 10,987 shares during the last quarter. Korea Investment CORP increased its stake in shares of AerCap by 48.7% in the 4th quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 143,080 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $13,693,000 after buying an additional 46,844 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC raised its position in shares of AerCap by 85.7% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 66,915 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,404,000 after acquiring an additional 30,884 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fox Run Management L.L.C. lifted its stake in shares of AerCap by 398.0% during the fourth quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. now owns 13,993 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,339,000 after acquiring an additional 11,183 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.42% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on AER shares. UBS Group lowered AerCap to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of AerCap from $105.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 target price (up previously from $113.00) on shares of AerCap in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their target price on AerCap from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AerCap has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $117.43.

AerCap Stock Down 9.3 %

AerCap stock opened at $89.51 on Friday. AerCap Holdings has a twelve month low of $81.93 and a twelve month high of $107.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.89. The company has a 50 day moving average of $100.01 and a 200-day moving average of $97.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.72 billion, a PE ratio of 7.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.45.

AerCap (NYSE:AER) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The financial services provider reported $3.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.56 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $2.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.97 billion. AerCap had a return on equity of 13.98% and a net margin of 32.38%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that AerCap Holdings will post 11.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AerCap announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 4.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

AerCap Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.21%. This is an increase from AerCap’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. AerCap’s dividend payout ratio is 9.99%.

About AerCap

AerCap Holdings N.V. engages in the lease, financing, sale, and management of commercial flight equipment in China, Hong Kong, Macau, the United States, Ireland, and internationally. The company offers aircraft asset management services, such as remarketing aircraft and engines; collecting rental and maintenance rent payments, monitoring aircraft maintenance, monitoring and enforcing contract compliance, and accepting delivery and redelivery of aircraft and engines; and conducting ongoing lessee financial performance reviews.