Brokerages Set Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) Target Price at $37.36

Shares of Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the thirteen ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eleven have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $37.69.

ARMK has been the topic of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Aramark from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Aramark from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 21st. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Aramark from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Aramark from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $36.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Aramark from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $36.00 to $42.50 in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Aramark

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ARMK. TFO Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Aramark by 62,280.0% during the fourth quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,119 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,000 after buying an additional 3,114 shares during the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in Aramark by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 120,520 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,387,000 after purchasing an additional 2,472 shares in the last quarter. Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Aramark in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $980,000. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Aramark by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,614,308 shares of the company’s stock valued at $663,545,000 after purchasing an additional 91,866 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado boosted its holdings in Aramark by 3,613.1% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 680,235 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,115,000 after purchasing an additional 661,915 shares in the last quarter.

Aramark Trading Down 1.4 %

ARMK opened at $37.29 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $9.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.67 and a beta of 1.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71. Aramark has a 52 week low of $24.46 and a 52 week high of $38.99. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $36.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $33.93.

Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $4.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.31 billion. Aramark had a return on equity of 14.09% and a net margin of 1.93%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.36 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Aramark will post 1.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Aramark Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 19th were given a dividend of $0.095 per share. This represents a $0.38 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 19th. Aramark’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.