Arizona State Retirement System Reduces Position in Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO)

Arizona State Retirement System reduced its position in Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO) by 12.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 16,586 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,254 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Arko were worth $137,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Corton Capital Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Arko by 4.7% in the third quarter. Corton Capital Inc. now owns 48,607 shares of the company’s stock worth $348,000 after buying an additional 2,168 shares during the period. MQS Management LLC bought a new position in Arko in the 3rd quarter valued at $95,000. Dark Forest Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Arko in the third quarter worth $101,000. Aigen Investment Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Arko during the third quarter worth $123,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Arko by 4.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,010,381 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,224,000 after purchasing an additional 42,177 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 78.29% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Arko from $7.00 to $5.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Arko from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 29th.

Arko Stock Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ:ARKO opened at $4.58 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.77, a current ratio of 1.54 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The firm has a market cap of $532.10 million, a PE ratio of 18.32 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a 50-day moving average of $6.11 and a 200 day moving average of $7.20. Arko Corp. has a 1-year low of $4.36 and a 1-year high of $8.58.

Arko (NASDAQ:ARKO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.04 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.40 billion. Arko had a net margin of 0.37% and a return on equity of 12.32%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.09 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Arko Corp. will post 0.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Arko Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 11th were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 8th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.62%. Arko’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.00%.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Morris Willner sold 2,792,631 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.76, for a total transaction of $18,878,185.56. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 11,683,980 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,983,704.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 32.16% of the company’s stock.

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.