It was a turbulent first half for Ryanair (RYA) following ongoing pilot disputes and air traffic controller strikes in continental Europe. In early October, management warned that pre-tax profits would land between €1.1bn (£97m) and €1.2bn – a 12 per cent downgrade on previous expectations. Investors were pleasantly surprised, then, that this figure actually came to €1.3bn, with the shares up around 5 per cent on results day. Passenger numbers increased by 6 per cent to 76.6m with load factor maintained at 96 per cent, although the average fare fell 3 per cent to under €46.
Improvements in ancillary revenue, up nearly a third during the period to €1.3bn, were offset by higher fuel, staff and compensation costs. And although more than 100 new routes were added to the summer 2018 season, weaker fares and higher oil prices have forced the airline to trim winter capacity by 1 per cent. Even so, management still expects traffic numbers to increase to around 141m by the end of the financial year, boosted by Ryanair's 75 per cent stake in Austrian airline Laudamotion.
Analysts at UBS expect EPS of 970¢ during the year to March 2019, compared with 1,200¢ in FY2018.
| RYANAIR (RYA) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 1,197¢ | MARKET VALUE: | €13.6bn | |
| TOUCH: | 1,196-1,197¢ | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 1,830¢ | LOW: 1,104¢ |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | 32 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 481¢ | NET DEBT: | 18% | |
| Half-year to 30 Sep | Turnover (€bn) | Pre-tax profit (€bn) | Earnings per share (¢) | Dividend per share (¢) |
| 2017 | 4.43 | 1.45 | 1,072 | nil |
| 2018 | 4.84 | 1.26 | 997 | nil |
| % change | +9 | -13 | -7 | - |
| Ex-div: | na | |||
| Payment: | na |
