ARKO (NASDAQ:ARKO) Downgraded by Zacks Research to “Strong Sell”

ARKO (NASDAQ:ARKO) was downgraded by research analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on ARKO. Raymond James Financial lowered shares of ARKO from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $8.00 to $7.00 in a research report on Monday. Mizuho set a $22.00 target price on shares of ARKO in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of ARKO from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of ARKO from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, ARKO presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $14.50.

ARKO Stock Performance

ARKO opened at $4.46 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.93, a current ratio of 1.62 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $7.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $6.71. ARKO has a 1 year low of $3.71 and a 1 year high of $8.76. The company has a market capitalization of $500.37 million, a PE ratio of 63.71 and a beta of 1.00.

ARKO (NASDAQ:ARKO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 7th. The company reported $0.04 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.11). The firm had revenue of $2.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.99 billion. ARKO had a return on equity of 4.44% and a net margin of 0.19%. Research analysts expect that ARKO will post 0.11 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ARKO news, General Counsel Maury Bricks sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.50, for a total transaction of $85,000.00. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 162,841 shares in the company, valued at $1,384,148.50. This represents a 5.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 21.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of ARKO

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ARKO. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of ARKO during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $45,154,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in ARKO by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,795,048 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,343,000 after purchasing an additional 22,532 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in ARKO by 7.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,021,751 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,800,000 after purchasing an additional 206,716 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ARKO by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,903,496 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,644,000 after purchasing an additional 7,735 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of ARKO in the 1st quarter valued at $8,220,000. Institutional investors own 78.29% of the company’s stock.

About ARKO

ARKO Corp (NASDAQ: ARKO) is a downstream energy and convenience retail company based in Matthews, North Carolina. The company’s core operations encompass fuel supply, distribution and retailing through a network of terminals, independent dealer locations and company-operated convenience stores. ARKO’s fuel offerings include branded and unbranded gasoline and diesel, as well as lubricants and other petroleum products marketed under various regional and private labels.

In its retail segment, ARKO operates a portfolio of convenience stores under the Kangaroo Express banner, serving on-site customers with fuel, grab-and-go food items, beverages and everyday household essentials.