World Kinect (NYSE:WKC) Rating Lowered to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus

Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of World Kinect (NYSE:WKC) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has $32.00 target price on the stock, down from their previous target price of $33.00.

WKC has been the topic of several other research reports. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of World Kinect from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of World Kinect from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $28.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of World Kinect from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.20.

World Kinect Trading Down 15.8 %

NYSE WKC opened at $26.39 on Friday. World Kinect has a one year low of $17.69 and a one year high of $31.70. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $29.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $27.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.68, a PEG ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.25.

World Kinect (NYSE:WKC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.62. World Kinect had a net margin of 0.29% and a return on equity of 6.26%. The firm had revenue of $10.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.58 earnings per share. World Kinect’s revenue for the quarter was down 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that World Kinect will post 2.15 EPS for the current year.

World Kinect announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Monday, September 9th that authorizes the company to buyback $200.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 11% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

World Kinect Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. World Kinect’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.09%.

Insider Transactions at World Kinect

In other news, CEO Michael J. Kasbar sold 58,948 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.92, for a total transaction of $1,645,828.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,019,063 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,452,238.96. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Michael J. Kasbar sold 58,948 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.92, for a total transaction of $1,645,828.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,019,063 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,452,238.96. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Manley sold 16,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.28, for a total transaction of $452,480.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 49,614 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,403,083.92. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of World Kinect

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. bought a new position in World Kinect during the fourth quarter worth $148,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in World Kinect by 891.9% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 13,926 shares of the company’s stock worth $368,000 after purchasing an additional 12,522 shares during the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its stake in World Kinect by 1.3% during the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 52,688 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,394,000 after purchasing an additional 682 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management lifted its stake in World Kinect by 2.0% during the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,180,681 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,229,000 after purchasing an additional 22,869 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its stake in World Kinect by 105.3% during the first quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 42,408 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,122,000 after purchasing an additional 21,755 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.06% of the company’s stock.

About World Kinect

World Kinect Corporation operates as an energy management company in the United States, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. This segment also offers fuel management, price risk management, ground handling, dispatch services, and trip planning services, such as flight planning and scheduling, weather reports and overflight permits; payment and processing services; and operates a web-based marketplace platform.