Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Buys Shares of 28,193 World Kinect Co. (NYSE:WKC)

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of World Kinect Co. (NYSE:WKC) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 28,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $642,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WKC. Vanguard Group Inc. purchased a new stake in World Kinect during the 3rd quarter valued at $157,793,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in World Kinect during the 4th quarter valued at $777,000. Nordea Investment Management AB purchased a new stake in World Kinect during the 4th quarter valued at $3,843,000. North Star Investment Management Corp. purchased a new stake in World Kinect during the 4th quarter valued at $1,139,000. Finally, Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in World Kinect during the 4th quarter valued at $208,000. 97.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Paul H. Stebbins sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.37, for a total value of $487,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 75,375 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,836,888.75. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 2.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on shares of World Kinect in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $25.00 target price for the company. Raymond James upped their price objective on World Kinect from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on World Kinect from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.75.

World Kinect Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE:WKC opened at $24.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.26. World Kinect Co. has a one year low of $17.69 and a one year high of $26.83. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $25.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $22.83.

World Kinect (NYSE:WKC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.23 billion. World Kinect had a net margin of 0.11% and a return on equity of 6.07%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.54 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that World Kinect Co. will post 2.25 EPS for the current year.

World Kinect Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 25th were issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 22nd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.76%. This is an increase from World Kinect’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. World Kinect’s dividend payout ratio is currently 80.95%.

World Kinect Company Profile

World Kinect Corporation operates as an energy management company in the United States, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. This segment also offers fuel management, price risk management, ground handling, dispatch services, and trip planning services, such as flight planning and scheduling, weather reports and overflight permits; payment and processing services; and operates a web-based marketplace platform.