ARKO Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO) Short Interest Update

ARKO Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO) saw a significant decrease in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totaling 3,160,000 shares, a decrease of 20.8% from the August 15th total of 3,990,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 496,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.4 days. Approximately 4.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Approximately 4.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 496,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.4 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on ARKO shares. Zacks Research raised ARKO to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Raymond James Financial set a $8.00 price target on ARKO and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised ARKO from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.13.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cetera Investment Advisers purchased a new position in shares of ARKO in the 4th quarter valued at $92,000. Gabelli Funds LLC increased its holdings in shares of ARKO by 134.5% in the 1st quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 333,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,315,000 after acquiring an additional 191,000 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new position in shares of ARKO in the 1st quarter valued at $45,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of ARKO in the 1st quarter valued at $1,284,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in shares of ARKO in the 4th quarter valued at $53,000. 78.29% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

ARKO Trading Down 3.8%

ARKO opened at $4.83 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $4.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $4.46. The company has a market capitalization of $544.53 million, a P/E ratio of 60.38 and a beta of 0.78. ARKO has a 52 week low of $3.51 and a 52 week high of $7.84. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.07.

ARKO (NASDAQ:ARKO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.04 billion. ARKO had a return on equity of 5.50% and a net margin of 0.18%. Analysts forecast that ARKO will post 0.2 earnings per share for the current year.

ARKO Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 18th were issued a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 18th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. ARKO’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 150.00%.

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.