Benchmark Reiterates Buy Rating for AAR (NYSE:AIR)

AAR (NYSE:AIR)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by equities researchers at Benchmark in a report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $83.00 price objective on the aerospace company’s stock. Benchmark’s price target indicates a potential upside of 20.13% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on AIR. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $85.00 price target on shares of AAR in a report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of AAR from $86.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, StockNews.com cut AAR from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $83.50.

AAR Price Performance

AIR opened at $69.09 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.41, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $65.05 and its 200 day moving average price is $66.62. AAR has a fifty-two week low of $54.71 and a fifty-two week high of $76.34. The firm has a market cap of $2.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.64 and a beta of 1.55.

AAR (NYSE:AIR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, September 23rd. The aerospace company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.03. AAR had a return on equity of 10.16% and a net margin of 2.00%. The business had revenue of $661.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $645.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.78 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 20.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that AAR will post 3.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AAR

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AAR by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,761,632 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $234,726,000 after acquiring an additional 44,948 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of AAR by 3.2% during the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,588,893 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $115,513,000 after acquiring an additional 48,630 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. bought a new stake in AAR during the second quarter worth approximately $77,754,000. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in AAR by 1,956.5% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 909,953 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $66,154,000 after purchasing an additional 865,705 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in AAR by 41.0% during the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 551,439 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $40,090,000 after purchasing an additional 160,363 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.