Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) Receives $42.23 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $42.23.

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ARMK. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Aramark from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Aramark from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Aramark from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Aramark from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on Aramark from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th.

Institutional Trading of Aramark

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Huntington National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Aramark by 100.3% in the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 681 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 341 shares during the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in Aramark during the third quarter worth about $28,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Aramark by 360.1% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 773 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 605 shares during the last quarter. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in shares of Aramark in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $52,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Aramark by 319.3% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,677 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 1,277 shares during the last quarter.

Aramark Stock Performance

ARMK stock opened at $40.86 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.53. Aramark has a 12-month low of $26.58 and a 12-month high of $42.04. The firm has a market cap of $10.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.27 and a beta of 1.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42.

Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.54. The business had revenue of $4.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.46 billion. Aramark had a net margin of 1.51% and a return on equity of 14.06%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.64 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Aramark will post 1.92 EPS for the current year.

Aramark Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a $0.001 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.01%. Aramark’s payout ratio is currently 38.38%.

About Aramark

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.