Arko Corp. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.03 (NASDAQ:ARKO)

Arko Corp. (NASDAQ:ARKO) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, May 7th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 20th will be given a dividend of 0.03 per share on Friday, May 31st. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 17th.

Arko has a payout ratio of 240.0% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect Arko to earn $0.07 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $0.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 171.4%.

Arko Price Performance

Shares of ARKO traded up $0.15 on Thursday, reaching $5.19. The stock had a trading volume of 282,928 shares, compared to its average volume of 340,229. The firm has a market capitalization of $600.69 million, a PE ratio of 20.20 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.77. Arko has a twelve month low of $4.09 and a twelve month high of $8.55. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $5.27 and a 200 day moving average of $6.93.

Arko (NASDAQ:ARKO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.04 by $0.02. Arko had a net margin of 0.37% and a return on equity of 12.32%. The company had revenue of $2.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.09 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Arko will post 0.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Arko

In related news, major shareholder Morris Willner sold 2,792,631 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.76, for a total transaction of $18,878,185.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 11,683,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $78,983,704.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 21.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Arko from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Arko from $7.00 to $5.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th.

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.