Bank of America Corp DE Buys 105,219 Shares of Aramark (NYSE:ARMK)

Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,457,094 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 105,219 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE owned approximately 0.93% of Aramark worth $91,674,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in ARMK. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Aramark by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,497,580 shares of the company’s stock worth $951,315,000 after purchasing an additional 178,147 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in Aramark by 63.2% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 13,593,734 shares of the company’s stock worth $507,182,000 after purchasing an additional 5,263,817 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Management Inc. WI boosted its holdings in Aramark by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Fiduciary Management Inc. WI now owns 11,454,740 shares of the company’s stock worth $427,376,000 after purchasing an additional 860,179 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Aramark by 29.5% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,511,152 shares of the company’s stock worth $317,551,000 after purchasing an additional 1,940,214 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FIL Ltd lifted its stake in Aramark by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 5,738,367 shares of the company’s stock valued at $214,098,000 after acquiring an additional 31,399 shares during the last quarter.

Aramark Price Performance

Shares of ARMK opened at $38.38 on Monday. Aramark has a fifty-two week low of $29.92 and a fifty-two week high of $42.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.06 billion, a PE ratio of 30.22 and a beta of 1.20. The company’s 50-day moving average is $34.02 and its 200-day moving average is $36.88. 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 (NYSE:ARMK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.01. Aramark had a net margin of 1.94% and a return on equity of 14.72%. The business had revenue of $4.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.35 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.30 earnings per share. Aramark’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Aramark will post 1.92 EPS for the current year.

Aramark Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 28th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 14th will be given a dividend of $0.105 per share. This represents a $0.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.09%. Aramark’s dividend payout ratio is 32.31%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ARMK has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Aramark from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Aramark from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $47.00 price target on shares of Aramark in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on shares of Aramark in a research note on Monday, February 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $48.00 price target for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Aramark presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.33.

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.