By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of Aramark (NYSE:ARMK – Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 89,431 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,337,000.
Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of Aramark by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 53,654 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,002,000 after acquiring an additional 276 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in Aramark by 45.7% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 988 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 310 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its stake in Aramark by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 8,012 shares of the company’s stock valued at $299,000 after purchasing an additional 391 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its position in Aramark by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 16,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $643,000 after purchasing an additional 395 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amalgamated Bank raised its stake in shares of Aramark by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 126,029 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,702,000 after purchasing an additional 447 shares in the last quarter.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
ARMK has been the topic of a number of research reports. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Aramark from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $47.00 price target on shares of Aramark in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Aramark in a report on Monday, February 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $48.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Aramark from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Aramark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Aramark presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.42.
View Our Latest Research Report on ARMK
Aramark Trading Down 0.7 %
Shares of Aramark stock opened at $30.36 on Wednesday. Aramark has a 1 year low of $29.82 and a 1 year high of $42.49. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $35.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.63. The company has a market cap of $8.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.91 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61.
Aramark (NYSE:ARMK – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.03. Aramark had a net margin of 1.94% and a return on equity of 14.72%. The firm had revenue of $4.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.61 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.41 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Aramark will post 1.92 EPS for the current year.
Aramark Increases Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 24th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a dividend of $0.105 per share. This represents a $0.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.38%. This is a positive change from Aramark’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.00. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Aramark’s payout ratio is currently 33.07%.
Aramark Profile
Aramark provides food and facilities services to education, healthcare, business and industry, sports, leisure, and corrections clients in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Food and Support Services United States, and Food and Support Services International. The company offers food-related managed services, including dining, catering, food service management, and convenience-oriented retail services; non-clinical food and food-related support services, such as patient food and nutrition, retail food, environmental services, and procurement services; and plant operations and maintenance, custodial/housekeeping, energy management, grounds keeping, and capital project management services.
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