AAR (NYSE:AIR) Lowered to “Sell” Rating by StockNews.com

AAR (NYSE:AIR) was downgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on AIR. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of AAR in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $83.00 price target on shares of AAR in a report on Friday, October 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.00.

AAR Stock Up 0.7 %

NYSE AIR opened at $67.59 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $64.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.31. AAR has a one year low of $54.71 and a one year high of $76.34. The firm has a market cap of $2.43 billion, a PE ratio of 37.14 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 3.06 and a quick ratio of 1.45.

AAR (NYSE:AIR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 7th. The aerospace company reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.07. AAR had a return on equity of 10.22% and a net margin of 2.67%. The company had revenue of $686.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $654.47 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.81 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that AAR will post 3.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Sean M. Gillen sold 17,385 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.33, for a total transaction of $1,153,147.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 72,326 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,797,383.58. The trade was a 19.38 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Jessica A. Garascia sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.90, for a total value of $100,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 37,565 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,513,098.50. This trade represents a 3.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 4.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AIR. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in AAR by 18.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 500,200 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $32,693,000 after purchasing an additional 77,974 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its stake in AAR by 269.4% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 66,223 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $4,328,000 after buying an additional 48,298 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in AAR by 3.2% during the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,588,893 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $115,513,000 after acquiring an additional 48,630 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp grew its stake in AAR by 4.1% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 22,859 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $1,494,000 after acquiring an additional 893 shares during the period. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of AAR in the second quarter worth about $2,330,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.74% of the company’s stock.

About AAR

AAR Corp. provides products and services to commercial aviation, government, and defense markets worldwide. The Parts Supply segment leases and sells aircraft components and replacement parts. The Repair & Engineering segment provides airframe maintenance services, such as airframe inspection, painting, line maintenance, airframe modification, structural repair, avionics service and installation, exterior and interior refurbishment, and engineering and support services; component repair services comprising maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services, engine and airframe accessories, and interior refurbishment; and landing gear overhaul services, including repair services on wheels and brakes.