Balyasny Asset Management L.P. Buys New Stake in Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO)

Balyasny Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 20,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $136,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cannell Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Arko by 55.8% during the 4th quarter. Cannell Capital LLC now owns 2,710,772 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,864,000 after acquiring an additional 971,158 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Arko by 166.6% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 639,070 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,211,000 after purchasing an additional 399,387 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Arko by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,851,140 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,200,000 after purchasing an additional 202,576 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets purchased a new stake in shares of Arko in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,248,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Arko by 24.0% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 766,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,050,000 after buying an additional 148,269 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.29% of the company’s stock.

Arko Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of ARKO opened at $5.20 on Monday. Arko Corp. has a 52-week low of $3.51 and a 52-week high of $7.84. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.86. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $4.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $5.78. The stock has a market cap of $596.34 million, a PE ratio of 32.50 and a beta of 0.72.

Arko (NASDAQ:ARKO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by $0.05. Arko had a net margin of 0.27% and a return on equity of 8.88%. The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. Research analysts forecast that Arko Corp. will post 0.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Arko Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 19th. Arko’s dividend payout ratio is currently 400.00%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on ARKO shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Arko from $4.50 to $5.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Arko from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $8.50 to $7.50 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Raymond James cut their target price on shares of Arko from $11.00 to $10.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Capital One Financial started coverage on shares of Arko in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $8.00 price target for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Arko presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $7.35.

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.