Stifel Nicolaus Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) Stock

Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) had its target price hoisted by equities research analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $43.00 to $45.00 in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ target price would indicate a potential upside of 18.20% from the company’s current price.

ARMK has been the topic of a number of other reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Aramark from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Aramark from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Aramark from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Aramark from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Aramark from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.23.

Aramark Stock Down 1.6 %

NYSE ARMK traded down $0.61 on Tuesday, hitting $38.07. The stock had a trading volume of 1,089,751 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,215,314. Aramark has a 52-week low of $25.92 and a 52-week high of $42.04. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $38.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market cap of $10.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.45 and a beta of 1.62.

Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.54. Aramark had a net margin of 1.93% and a return on equity of 14.09%. The company had revenue of $4.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.64 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Aramark will post 1.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aramark

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ARMK. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in shares of Aramark by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,712,814 shares of the company’s stock valued at $771,141,000 after purchasing an additional 98,506 shares during the period. Farallon Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Aramark by 5.5% in the first quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 17,822,937 shares of the company’s stock worth $579,602,000 after buying an additional 923,683 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in Aramark by 5.4% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 13,391,832 shares of the company’s stock worth $435,501,000 after acquiring an additional 681,735 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in Aramark by 70.0% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 8,329,917 shares of the company’s stock valued at $322,618,000 after purchasing an additional 3,430,131 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Aramark by 18.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,731,963 shares of the company’s stock valued at $160,977,000 after purchasing an additional 720,738 shares during the period.

About Aramark

Aramark provides food and facilities services to education, healthcare, business and industry, sports, leisure, and corrections clients in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Food and Support Services United States, and Food and Support Services International. The company offers food-related managed services, including dining, catering, food service management, and convenience-oriented retail services; non-clinical food and food-related support services, such as patient food and nutrition, retail food, environmental services, and procurement services; and plant operations and maintenance, custodial/housekeeping, energy management, grounds keeping, and capital project management services.