ARKO (NASDAQ:ARKO) Raised to Hold at Wall Street Zen

ARKO (NASDAQ:ARKO) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Raymond James Financial set a $8.00 target price on shares of ARKO and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price 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. Finally, Capital One Financial initiated coverage on shares of ARKO in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $8.00 target price on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, ARKO currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $7.13.

ARKO Price Performance

ARKO stock opened at $4.87 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $4.43 and a 200-day moving average of $4.84. The company has a current ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.07. ARKO has a 12 month low of $3.51 and a 12 month high of $7.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $549.04 million, a P/E ratio of 60.88 and a beta of 0.74.

ARKO (NASDAQ:ARKO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. ARKO had a net margin of 0.18% and a return on equity of 5.50%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that ARKO will post 0.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ARKO. Voss Capital LP purchased a new position in shares of ARKO during the first quarter worth approximately $9,547,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of ARKO by 166.6% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 639,070 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,211,000 after buying an additional 399,387 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new position in shares of ARKO in the first quarter worth $1,335,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of ARKO in the first quarter worth $1,284,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of ARKO by 37.0% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 762,864 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,013,000 after buying an additional 206,061 shares during the period. 78.29% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.