Balyasny Asset Management L.P. Buys Shares of 20,624 Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO)

Balyasny Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 20,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $136,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 205,377 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Arko by 24.0% during the fourth 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. Victory Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Arko in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $66,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Arko in the 4th quarter worth approximately $368,000. Finally, CM Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Arko by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. CM Management LLC now owns 1,050,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,920,000 after purchasing an additional 30,000 shares during the period. 78.29% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Arko Stock Down 1.7%

Arko stock opened at $5.20 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $596.34 million, a P/E ratio of 32.50 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.86. Arko Corp. has a twelve month low of $3.51 and a twelve month high of $7.84. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $4.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $5.78.

Arko (NASDAQ:ARKO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. Arko had a return on equity of 8.88% and a net margin of 0.27%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Arko Corp. will post 0.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Arko Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 19th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.31%. Arko’s payout ratio is 400.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ARKO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Arko from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the company from $8.50 to $7.50 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Arko from $4.50 to $5.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Capital One Financial initiated coverage on Arko in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $8.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Raymond James dropped their target price on Arko from $11.00 to $10.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $7.35.

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.