Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO) Short Interest Update

Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,940,000 shares, a growth of 6.1% from the March 15th total of 2,770,000 shares. Currently, 4.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 305,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 9.6 days.

Arko Trading Down 4.7 %

NASDAQ ARKO opened at $4.48 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.77. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $6.33 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $7.26. Arko has a twelve month low of $4.48 and a twelve month high of $8.90. The company has a market capitalization of $520.49 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.92 and a beta of 0.28.

Arko (NASDAQ:ARKO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.04 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.40 billion. Arko had a return on equity of 12.32% and a net margin of 0.37%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.09 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Arko will post 0.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Arko Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 11th were paid a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.68%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 8th. Arko’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Morris Willner sold 2,792,631 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.76, for a total value of $18,878,185.56. Following the sale, the insider now owns 11,683,980 shares in the company, valued at $78,983,704.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 32.16% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arko

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Phoenix Holdings Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Arko during the third quarter valued at approximately $43,726,000. Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in Arko by 123.6% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 815,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,059,000 after buying an additional 450,529 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Arko by 15.6% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,642,951 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,554,000 after acquiring an additional 221,619 shares during the last quarter. Ergoteles LLC purchased a new position in shares of Arko in the first quarter valued at about $1,709,000. Finally, BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in shares of Arko by 3.2% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,694,530 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,272,000 after acquiring an additional 174,306 shares during the last quarter. 78.29% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Arko from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 29th.

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.