Reasons to Invest in Ryanair Holdings plc (RYAAY)

Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Value Income Fund” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In Q1, US equities markets surged to new all-time highs, supported by a robust US economy. The fund’s Investor Class APFWX, Advisor Class APDWX, and Institutional Class APHWX returned 4.87%, 4.87%, and 4.98% respectively, in the quarter compared to a 10.56% return for the S&P 500 Index. The portfolio delivered a good total return in Q1 comprised of premium income and substantial capital appreciation, in line with the firm’s total return expectations. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the strategy to know its best picks in 2024.

Artisan Value Income Fund highlighted stocks like Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY) provides scheduled passenger airline services. One-month return of Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY) was -5.03%, and its shares gained 14.18% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 6, 2024, Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY) stock closed at $123.63 per share with a market capitalization of $28.115 billion.

Artisan Value Income Fund stated the following regarding Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:

"We also added Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY), an Ireland-based low-cost airline focused on the European market. The airline’s low-cost, high on-time, high-efficiency model has helped it to take share from inefficient legacy and state-sponsored carriers over the past 20 years. Ryanair keeps a net cash balance sheet to opportunistically purchase aircraft countercyclically when it can do so at cheaper prices. Additionally, the company’s economics are favorable. It has pricing power due to industry consolidation, capacity growth that is below demand growth and a lack of overlap on key routes. This leads to strong returns on equity and margins. Ryanair recently initiated its first dividend policy, and we estimate the dividend could yield 2%–3%. In addition to the dividend, Ryanair is expected to repurchase stock. Over the last decade, the company has retired 20% of its share count. This is remarkable considering it was a growth-focused airline and still had net cash after a pandemic. The stock sells at an attractive low-double-digit P/E, but we do not need multiple expansion for this investment to contribute well to our portfolio income and capital appreciation objectives. We believe simply continued execution of the business should lead to solid returns."

A Boeing 737 aircrafts parked in an airport terminal with passengers awaiting to board.

Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 20 hedge fund portfolios held Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY) at the end of the first quarter which was 26 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we discussed Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY) and shared the list of largest travel companies in the world. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.