Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Saturday.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on ARMK. Robert W. Baird upgraded Aramark from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $43.00 to $47.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Baird R W upgraded Aramark from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $47.00 price target on shares of Aramark in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. UBS Group increased their price target on Aramark from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Aramark from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, June 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Aramark has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $45.44.

Aramark Trading Down 1.3%

NYSE:ARMK opened at $39.10 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $41.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $37.99. Aramark has a 52 week low of $29.92 and a 52 week high of $44.49. The company has a market capitalization of $10.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.96 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.29.

Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.40. Aramark had a return on equity of 15.67% and a net margin of 2.02%. The company had revenue of $4.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.66 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.31 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Aramark will post 1.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aramark Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 6th will be given a dividend of $0.105 per share. This represents a $0.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. Aramark’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 31.11%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Aramark

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in Aramark by 23.2% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 52,811 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,970,000 after buying an additional 9,934 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Aramark by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 432,780 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,147,000 after buying an additional 12,550 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Aramark by 24.6% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,163,577 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,413,000 after buying an additional 229,926 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia boosted its stake in Aramark by 769.6% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 94,779 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,536,000 after buying an additional 83,880 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Aramark during the fourth quarter worth $10,324,000.

About Aramark

Aramark provides food and facilities services to education, healthcare, business and industry, sports, leisure, and corrections clients in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Food and Support Services United States, and Food and Support Services International. The company offers food-related managed services, including dining, catering, food service management, and convenience-oriented retail services; non-clinical food and food-related support services, such as patient food and nutrition, retail food, environmental services, and procurement services; and plant operations and maintenance, custodial/housekeeping, energy management, grounds keeping, and capital project management services.