State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Reduces Holdings in Aramark (NYSE:ARMK)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D reduced its stake in Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) by 3.3% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 89,070 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,002 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Aramark were worth $3,450,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Sigma Planning Corp raised its holdings in Aramark by 7.1% during the 3rd quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 12,666 shares of the company’s stock valued at $491,000 after buying an additional 842 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in shares of Aramark by 62.7% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 2,154 shares of the company’s stock valued at $83,000 after acquiring an additional 830 shares during the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Aramark during the third quarter worth about $28,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Aramark by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 14,498 shares of the company’s stock valued at $562,000 after purchasing an additional 1,303 shares during the period. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its position in Aramark by 63.6% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 140,432 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,439,000 after purchasing an additional 54,580 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on ARMK. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Aramark from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Aramark from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $42.50 in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Aramark from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Aramark from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Aramark from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.23.

Aramark Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:ARMK opened at $38.03 on Wednesday. Aramark has a 12-month low of $25.92 and a 12-month high of $42.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.45 and a beta of 1.62. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $35.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71.

Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54. The company had revenue of $4.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.46 billion. Aramark had a net margin of 1.93% and a return on equity of 14.09%. Aramark’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.64 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Aramark will post 1.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aramark Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.001 per share. This represents a $0.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.01%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. Aramark’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.38%.

Aramark Company 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.