Short Interest in Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO) Rises By 23.0%

Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,050,000 shares, a growth of 23.0% from the February 28th total of 2,480,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 666,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.6 days. Currently, 4.1% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arko

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of ARKO. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its position in Arko by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 45,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $302,000 after purchasing an additional 1,572 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its stake in Arko by 90.9% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 9,742 shares of the company’s stock worth $64,000 after buying an additional 4,639 shares in the last quarter. Teton Advisors Inc. grew its position in Arko by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Teton Advisors Inc. now owns 105,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $692,000 after acquiring an additional 5,000 shares during the last quarter. PDT Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Arko by 8.7% during the third quarter. PDT Partners LLC now owns 75,685 shares of the company’s stock worth $531,000 after acquiring an additional 6,031 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Arko by 25.1% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 32,373 shares of the company’s stock worth $214,000 after acquiring an additional 6,497 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.29% of the company’s stock.

Arko Stock Performance

ARKO stock opened at $3.95 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $5.75 and a 200-day moving average of $6.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.86. Arko has a 12-month low of $3.76 and a 12-month high of $7.84. The firm has a market cap of $457.30 million, a PE ratio of 24.69 and a beta of 0.61.

Arko Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Arko’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 92.31%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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.