Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. $ARCO Position Boosted by General American Investors Co. Inc.

General American Investors Co. Inc. raised its position in shares of Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ARCO) by 35.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 950,178 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 250,000 shares during the period. General American Investors Co. Inc.’s holdings in Arcos Dorados were worth $6,974,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Arcos Dorados by 35.3% during the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 20,128,477 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $135,867,000 after buying an additional 5,255,199 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Arcos Dorados by 74.9% during the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,427,294 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $77,134,000 after buying an additional 4,893,812 shares in the last quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda lifted its stake in Arcos Dorados by 19.1% during the fourth quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 7,551,676 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $55,429,000 after buying an additional 1,209,055 shares in the last quarter. Moerus Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Arcos Dorados by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Moerus Capital Management LLC now owns 3,556,906 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $26,108,000 after buying an additional 226,912 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in Arcos Dorados by 3.1% during the second quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 3,508,707 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $27,684,000 after buying an additional 105,972 shares in the last quarter. 55.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on ARCO. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Arcos Dorados from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Arcos Dorados in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Arcos Dorados from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 23rd. Finally, Santander raised shares of Arcos Dorados to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $8.70.

Arcos Dorados Trading Up 0.7%

NYSE:ARCO opened at $8.83 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $8.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $8.17. Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $6.51 and a 52 week high of $9.75. The company has a market capitalization of $1.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.95 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Arcos Dorados (NYSE:ARCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 20th. The restaurant operator reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.06. Arcos Dorados had a return on equity of 10.47% and a net margin of 4.86%.The firm had revenue of $1.22 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.21 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.07 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. will post 0.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Arcos Dorados Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 29th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 23rd will be issued a $0.07 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 23rd. This represents a $0.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.2%. Arcos Dorados’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.22%.

Arcos Dorados Profile

Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc is the largest independent McDonald’s franchisee in the world, operating under an exclusive license agreement with McDonald’s Corporation. The company develops, owns and operates quick-service restaurants, offering the full McDonald’s menu, including hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, salads, sides, desserts and McCafé beverages. In addition to restaurant operations, Arcos Dorados manages supply chain logistics, property development, training and support services for its franchise network.

Headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay, Arcos Dorados serves 20 markets across Latin America and the Caribbean, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Uruguay.