MQS Management LLC Purchases New Holdings in Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO)

MQS Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 23,157 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $132,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARKO. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Arko by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,039,264 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,574,000 after purchasing an additional 28,883 shares during the last quarter. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC bought a new position in Arko in the 4th quarter worth about $104,000. Gabelli Funds LLC grew its stake in Arko by 300.0% in the 4th quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 80,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $660,000 after acquiring an additional 60,000 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Arko in the 1st quarter worth about $61,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Arko by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,828,020 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,820,000 after acquiring an additional 82,831 shares in the last quarter. 78.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on ARKO shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Arko from $7.00 to $5.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Arko from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 9th.

Arko Stock Up 0.5 %

ARKO stock traded up $0.03 during trading on Thursday, hitting $6.33. 269,876 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 387,053. The firm has a market capitalization of $732.63 million, a P/E ratio of 24.35 and a beta of 0.45. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $6.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $6.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.13. Arko Corp. has a 1 year low of $4.09 and a 1 year high of $8.42.

Arko (NASDAQ:ARKO) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by $0.15. The company had revenue of $2.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. Arko had a net margin of 0.39% and a return on equity of 13.20%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Arko Corp. will post 0.54 EPS for the current year.

Arko Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 20th were paid a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 17th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. Arko’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.16%.

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.