Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO) Short Interest Up 8.7% in August

Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO) saw a significant increase in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,620,000 shares, an increase of 8.7% from the August 15th total of 3,330,000 shares. Approximately 5.1% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 398,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 9.1 days.

Arko Price Performance

Shares of Arko stock traded up $0.02 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $6.38. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 30,735 shares, compared to its average volume of 370,533. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.97, a current ratio of 1.58 and a quick ratio of 1.06. Arko has a one year low of $4.09 and a one year high of $8.42. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $6.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $5.79. The stock has a market cap of $738.45 million, a P/E ratio of 24.73 and a beta of 0.45.

Arko (NASDAQ:ARKO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.41 billion. Arko had a net margin of 0.39% and a return on equity of 13.12%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.11 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Arko will post 0.31 EPS for the current year.

Arko Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 19th were paid a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 19th. Arko’s payout ratio is currently 46.15%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Arko from $5.00 to $6.25 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ARKO. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Arko by 72.8% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,791 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 2,018 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Arko during the first quarter worth approximately $61,000. Arizona State Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Arko by 27.9% in the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 18,476 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,000 after acquiring an additional 4,030 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Arko during the second quarter valued at approximately $119,000. Finally, MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in Arko in the first quarter valued at about $132,000. Institutional investors own 78.29% of the company’s stock.

Arko Company Profile

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.