Air Lease Co. (NYSE:AL) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Air Lease Co. (NYSE:AL) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $53.80.

AL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. TD Cowen dropped their price target on Air Lease from $59.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Barclays increased their price target on Air Lease from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Air Lease from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 29th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Air Lease

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AL. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new stake in Air Lease in the third quarter valued at about $264,000. Rhumbline Advisers raised its stake in shares of Air Lease by 2.1% in the third quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 117,134 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $4,616,000 after purchasing an additional 2,423 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new position in shares of Air Lease in the third quarter worth about $245,000. Mariner LLC raised its stake in shares of Air Lease by 2.1% in the third quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 17,716 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $698,000 after purchasing an additional 361 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Air Lease by 8.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,082,070 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $42,644,000 after purchasing an additional 86,353 shares during the last quarter. 94.59% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Air Lease Price Performance

AL opened at $46.85 on Wednesday. Air Lease has a 12-month low of $33.33 and a 12-month high of $52.31. The company has a current ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.69. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $48.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $45.41. The company has a market capitalization of $5.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.45, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.59.

Air Lease (NYSE:AL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The transportation company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by ($0.07). Air Lease had a return on equity of 9.00% and a net margin of 21.89%. The firm had revenue of $663.31 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $677.26 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.06 EPS. Air Lease’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Air Lease will post 6.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Air Lease Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 8th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 4th. Air Lease’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.94%.

About Air Lease

Air Lease Corporation, an aircraft leasing company, engages in the purchase and leasing of commercial jet aircraft to airlines worldwide. It sells aircraft from its fleet to third parties, including other leasing companies, financial services companies, airlines, and other investors. The company provides fleet management services to investors and owners of aircraft portfolios.