Norges Bank Purchases New Holdings in Ryder System, Inc. (NYSE:R)

Norges Bank acquired a new position in Ryder System, Inc. (NYSE:R) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 623,766 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,844,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of R. Keystone Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Ryder System in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Ryder System in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of Ryder System in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $34,000. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of Ryder System during the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,000. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. boosted its stake in Ryder System by 36.5% in the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 344 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $54,000 after buying an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.47% of the company’s stock.

Ryder System Stock Performance

R stock opened at $146.38 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $154.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $155.37. Ryder System, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $106.88 and a fifty-two week high of $171.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.14, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.11 billion, a PE ratio of 13.20 and a beta of 1.23.

Ryder System (NYSE:R) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The transportation company reported $3.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.39 by $0.06. Ryder System had a return on equity of 17.23% and a net margin of 3.87%. Analysts forecast that Ryder System, Inc. will post 13.68 EPS for the current year.

Ryder System Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a $0.81 dividend. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. Ryder System’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.22%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on R. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Ryder System from $160.00 to $183.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Ryder System from $176.00 to $174.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Ryder System from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ryder System has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $157.00.

About Ryder System

Ryder System, Inc operates as a logistics and transportation company worldwide. It operates through three segments: Fleet Management Solutions (FMS), Supply Chain Solutions (SCS), and Dedicated Transportation Solutions (DTS). The FMS segment offers full-service leasing and leasing with flexible maintenance options; commercial vehicle rental services; and contract or transactional maintenance services of trucks, tractors, and trailers; access to diesel fuel; and fuel planning and tax reporting, cards, and monitoring services, and centralized billing, as well as sells used vehicles through its retail sales centers and www.ryder.com/used-trucks website, as well as digital and technology support services.