Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) Short Interest Update

Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 5,840,000 shares, a drop of 15.9% from the September 15th total of 6,940,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,970,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.0 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on ARMK. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Aramark from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $36.00 to $42.50 in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Bank of America raised their target price on Aramark from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com downgraded Aramark from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Aramark from $37.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Aramark from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $38.95.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Aramark in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Aramark by 360.1% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 773 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 605 shares in the last quarter. Scarborough Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Aramark in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Twin Tree Management LP grew its stake in Aramark by 32.0% in the first quarter. Twin Tree Management LP now owns 1,424 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Aramark by 319.3% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,677 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 1,277 shares during the last quarter.

Aramark Stock Performance

Aramark stock traded up $0.61 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $38.72. 1,380,886 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,240,215. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $36.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $34.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71. The company has a market cap of $10.18 billion, a PE ratio of 16.08 and a beta of 1.62. Aramark has a one year low of $25.71 and a one year high of $38.99.

Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.01. Aramark had a return on equity of 14.09% and a net margin of 1.93%. The company had revenue of $4.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.31 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.36 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Aramark will post 1.55 EPS for the current year.

Aramark Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 19th were issued a dividend of $0.095 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 19th. This represents a $0.38 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.98%. Aramark’s dividend payout ratio is 15.97%.

Aramark Company Profile

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.