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

Arizona State Retirement System lessened its stake in Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO) by 17.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,100 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,231 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Arko were worth $100,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Arko by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,801,212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,647,000 after purchasing an additional 14,623 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Arko by 24.0% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 766,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,050,000 after acquiring an additional 148,269 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Arko by 598.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 239,683 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,683,000 after acquiring an additional 205,377 shares during the last quarter. Readystate Asset Management LP grew its stake in Arko by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. Readystate Asset Management LP now owns 220,972 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,551,000 after acquiring an additional 14,845 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its stake in Arko by 98.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 171,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,203,000 after acquiring an additional 85,009 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Arko from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $8.50 to $7.50 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th.

Arko Price Performance

Arko stock opened at $3.90 on Monday. Arko Corp. has a 12-month low of $3.76 and a 12-month high of $7.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $451.51 million, a P/E ratio of 24.38 and a beta of 0.61. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $6.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $6.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.86, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.13.

Arko Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.08%. Arko’s dividend payout ratio is currently 92.31%.

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.