AAR Corp. (NYSE:AIR) Short Interest Down 20.3% in October

AAR Corp. (NYSE:AIR) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 562,200 shares, a decrease of 20.3% from the October 15th total of 705,800 shares. Approximately 1.6% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 279,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.0 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AAR

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Earnest Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of AAR by 3.2% in the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AAR in the 2nd quarter valued at about $77,754,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of AAR by 1,956.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 909,953 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $66,154,000 after acquiring an additional 865,705 shares in the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its position in shares of AAR by 20.5% during the 3rd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 790,267 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $51,652,000 after acquiring an additional 134,215 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of AAR by 32.9% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 732,957 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $47,906,000 after acquiring an additional 181,518 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.74% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on AIR shares. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of AAR from $86.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 19th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of AAR from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 target price on shares of AAR in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $83.00 price objective on shares of AAR in a research report on Friday, October 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.00.

AAR Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AIR traded down $0.90 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $66.15. 209,840 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 306,054. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 3.06 and a quick ratio of 1.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.38 billion, a PE ratio of 36.84 and a beta of 1.57. AAR has a one year low of $54.71 and a one year high of $76.34. The company’s 50 day moving average is $63.98 and its 200 day moving average is $66.69.

AAR (NYSE:AIR) last released its earnings results on Monday, September 23rd. The aerospace company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $661.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $645.60 million. AAR had a return on equity of 10.22% and a net margin of 2.67%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.78 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that AAR will post 3.63 earnings per share for the current year.

AAR Company Profile

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.