Arko Corp. (ARKO) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.03 on May 31st

Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, May 7th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th will be paid a dividend of 0.03 per share on Friday, May 31st. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 17th.

Arko has a dividend payout ratio of 240.0% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect Arko to earn $0.07 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $0.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 171.4%.

Arko Price Performance

ARKO traded up $0.15 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $5.19. 559,424 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 343,982. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $5.27 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $6.93. Arko has a one year low of $4.09 and a one year high of $8.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $600.69 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.20 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.77.

Arko (NASDAQ:ARKO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.04 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.40 billion. Arko had a net margin of 0.37% and a return on equity of 12.32%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.09 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Arko will post 0.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Morris Willner sold 2,792,631 shares of Arko stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.76, for a total transaction of $18,878,185.56. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 11,683,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $78,983,704.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 21.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ARKO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Arko from $7.00 to $5.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Arko from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday.

Arko Company Profile

Arko Corp. operates convenience stores in the United States. It operates through Retail, Wholesale, Fleet Fueling, and GPMP segments. The Retail segment engages in the sale of fuel and merchandise to retail consumers. Its Wholesale segment supplies fuel to third-party dealers and consignment agents. The Fleet Fueling segment supplies fuel to proprietary and third-party cardlock, and issuance of proprietary fuel cards.