Banco Santander S.A. Raises Stock Position in Aramark (NYSE:ARMK)

Banco Santander S.A. boosted its position in Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) by 43.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 304,999 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 91,718 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A. owned about 0.12% of Aramark worth $11,380,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Creative Planning increased its position in shares of Aramark by 10.1% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 7,771 shares of the company’s stock valued at $301,000 after buying an additional 716 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. purchased a new position in Aramark during the 3rd quarter valued at about $408,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Aramark by 63.6% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 140,432 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,439,000 after acquiring an additional 54,580 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Aramark by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 14,498 shares of the company’s stock valued at $562,000 after acquiring an additional 1,303 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in Aramark during the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ARMK. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Aramark from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Truist Financial raised their price target on Aramark from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $47.00 price objective on shares of Aramark in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Aramark from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Aramark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.42.

Aramark Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of ARMK opened at $35.95 on Friday. Aramark has a twelve month low of $29.82 and a twelve month high of $42.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.31 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $37.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.10.

Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $4.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.61 billion. Aramark had a return on equity of 14.72% and a net margin of 1.94%. The company’s revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.41 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Aramark will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Aramark Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a $0.105 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $0.42 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.17%. This is a positive change from Aramark’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.00. Aramark’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.07%.

Aramark 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.