Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) Stock Position Cut by California Public Employees Retirement System

California Public Employees Retirement System lowered its holdings in Aramark (NYSE:ARMK - Free Report) by 7.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 449,561 shares of the company's stock after selling 38,476 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.17% of Aramark worth $16,773,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ARMK. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new position in Aramark in the 4th quarter worth $3,337,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its stake in shares of Aramark by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 33,773 shares of the company's stock worth $1,260,000 after acquiring an additional 1,644 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Aramark in the fourth quarter valued at about $88,949,000. Anthracite Investment Company Inc. grew its stake in Aramark by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Anthracite Investment Company Inc. now owns 96,000 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,582,000 after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Aramark during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $315,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on ARMK. Citigroup initiated coverage on Aramark in a research note on Monday, February 24th. They set a "buy" rating and a $48.00 target price for the company. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Aramark from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Aramark from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $47.00 price target on shares of Aramark in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Aramark from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $43.42.

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Aramark Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ARMK traded up $3.58 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $33.97. The company had a trading volume of 3,802,140 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,096,616. The stock has a market cap of $9.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.75 and a beta of 1.37. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $35.55 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.84. Aramark has a 12 month low of $29.82 and a 12 month high of $42.49.

Aramark (NYSE:ARMK - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $4.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.61 billion. Aramark had a net margin of 1.94% and a return on equity of 14.72%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.41 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Aramark will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Aramark Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a $0.105 dividend. This is a boost from Aramark's previous quarterly dividend of $0.00. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $0.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. Aramark's dividend payout ratio is 33.07%.

Aramark 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.