Arko (NASDAQ:ARKO) Shares Gap Up Following Dividend Announcement

Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO)’s share price gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday following a dividend announcement from the company. The stock had previously closed at $4.28, but opened at $4.67. Arko shares last traded at $5.13, with a volume of 378,217 shares traded.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th will be given a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 17th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.31%. Arko’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.00%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ARKO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Arko from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Arko from $7.00 to $5.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th.

Arko Stock Up 3.0 %

The company has a market cap of $600.69 million, a P/E ratio of 20.76 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.77. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $5.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $6.92.

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

Insider Activity

In other 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 transaction, the insider now owns 11,683,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $78,983,704.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 21.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARKO. Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Arko in the first quarter valued at approximately $61,000. MQS Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Arko in the 3rd quarter worth $95,000. Dark Forest Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Arko during the third quarter worth $101,000. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC bought a new stake in Arko in the fourth quarter valued at about $104,000. Finally, Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in Arko in the third quarter valued at about $123,000. 78.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.