Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO) Short Interest Down 5.2% in May

Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO) was the target of a large decline in short interest during the month of May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,480,000 shares, a decline of 5.2% from the May 15th total of 3,670,000 shares. Currently, 4.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 441,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 7.9 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arko

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Swiss National Bank boosted its position in Arko by 23.6% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 145,461 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,040,000 after purchasing an additional 27,800 shares in the last quarter. Corton Capital Inc. lifted its position in shares of Arko by 4.7% in the third quarter. Corton Capital Inc. now owns 48,607 shares of the company’s stock valued at $348,000 after acquiring an additional 2,168 shares in the last quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Arko in the third quarter valued at approximately $101,000. Aigen Investment Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Arko in the third quarter valued at approximately $123,000. Finally, MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Arko in the third quarter valued at approximately $95,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ARKO. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Arko from $7.00 to $5.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Arko from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 9th.

Arko Stock Performance

Shares of ARKO stock opened at $6.07 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $702.54 million, a PE ratio of 23.35 and a beta of 0.45. Arko has a 52-week low of $4.09 and a 52-week high of $8.55. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $5.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $6.60. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.13.

Arko (NASDAQ:ARKO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $2.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. Arko had a return on equity of 13.20% and a net margin of 0.39%. On average, equities analysts expect that Arko will post 0.54 EPS for the current year.

Arko Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 31st. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th were issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 17th. Arko’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.16%.

About Arko

Arko Corp. operates convenience stores in the United States. It operates through Retail, Wholesale, Fleet Fueling, and GPMP segments. The Retail segment engages in the sale of fuel and merchandise to retail consumers. Its Wholesale segment supplies fuel to third-party dealers and consignment agents. The Fleet Fueling segment supplies fuel to proprietary and third-party cardlock, and issuance of proprietary fuel cards.