Arcos Dorados (NYSE:ARCO) Rating Lowered to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Arcos Dorados (NYSE:ARCO) was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on ARCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Arcos Dorados from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $9.00 to $10.50 in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Arcos Dorados from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Arcos Dorados from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.50.

Arcos Dorados Price Performance

Shares of Arcos Dorados stock opened at $7.79 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.39 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $7.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $8.28. Arcos Dorados has a 52 week low of $6.67 and a 52 week high of $9.75.

Arcos Dorados (NYSE:ARCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 14th. The restaurant operator reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. Arcos Dorados had a return on equity of 12.50% and a net margin of 5.15%. As a group, analysts expect that Arcos Dorados will post 0.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Arcos Dorados by 7.9% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 23,174,841 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $191,192,000 after buying an additional 1,703,169 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Arcos Dorados by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 10,741,166 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $88,615,000 after buying an additional 178,602 shares in the last quarter. Moerus Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Arcos Dorados by 19.9% during the 1st quarter. Moerus Capital Management LLC now owns 4,263,589 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $35,175,000 after buying an additional 706,683 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. grew its holdings in Arcos Dorados by 132.8% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 3,483,732 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $28,741,000 after buying an additional 1,987,271 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brightlight Capital Management LP increased its stake in Arcos Dorados by 55.2% in the 4th quarter. Brightlight Capital Management LP now owns 3,466,800 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $25,446,000 after acquiring an additional 1,232,800 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.91% of the company’s stock.

Arcos Dorados Company Profile

Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc is the largest independent McDonald’s franchisee in the world and the exclusive master franchisee for McDonald’s in Latin America and the Caribbean. The company operates and franchises McDonald’s restaurants across 20 countries and territories, serving customers through company-operated and franchised locations.

Its restaurant business offers McDonald’s products including hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, French fries, breakfast items, desserts, soft drinks and McCafé beverages.