ARKO (NASDAQ:ARKO) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of ARKO (NASDAQ:ARKO) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report released on Sunday morning.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on the company. Raymond James Financial set a $8.00 target price on ARKO and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Zacks Research lowered shares of ARKO from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of ARKO in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $7.13.

ARKO Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:ARKO opened at $4.22 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $470.24 million, a PE ratio of 52.76 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.07, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.55. ARKO has a 52-week low of $3.51 and a 52-week high of $7.84. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $4.44 and a 200 day moving average of $4.56.

ARKO (NASDAQ:ARKO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $2.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2 billion. ARKO had a net margin of 0.18% and a return on equity of 5.50%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that ARKO will post 0.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ARKO Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Monday, November 17th will be given a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 17th. ARKO’s payout ratio is 109.09%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARKO. Voss Capital LP purchased a new position in shares of ARKO during the 1st quarter worth $9,547,000. Phoenix Financial Ltd. raised its holdings in ARKO by 20.4% in the 3rd quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd. now owns 7,309,430 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,404,000 after purchasing an additional 1,239,512 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in ARKO by 1,635.3% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 574,771 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,627,000 after purchasing an additional 541,648 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in ARKO during the third quarter valued at about $2,444,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in ARKO during the first quarter valued at about $1,335,000. 78.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About ARKO

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.