Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) Given New $41.00 Price Target at The Goldman Sachs Group

Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) had its price target increased by The Goldman Sachs Group from $38.00 to $41.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on ARMK. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Aramark from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Aramark from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Aramark from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $36.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com lowered Aramark from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Aramark from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $42.50 in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $39.68.

Aramark Stock Performance

ARMK stock opened at $39.67 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $37.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $34.34. Aramark has a fifty-two week low of $25.92 and a fifty-two week high of $39.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.43 billion, a PE ratio of 16.67 and a beta of 1.62.

Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.31 billion. Aramark had a return on equity of 14.09% and a net margin of 1.93%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.36 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Aramark will post 1.55 EPS for the current year.

Aramark Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, August 19th were given a $0.095 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 19th. This represents a $0.38 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.96%. Aramark’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.97%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aramark

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Aramark by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,584,242 shares of the company’s stock valued at $718,917,000 after acquiring an additional 139,693 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Aramark in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Global Assets Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Aramark in the 1st quarter valued at about $500,000. State of Michigan Retirement System grew its holdings in Aramark by 3.0% during the first quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 64,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,098,000 after purchasing an additional 1,900 shares during the period. Finally, Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its position in Aramark by 9.7% during the first quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 20,405 shares of the company’s stock worth $634,000 after buying an additional 1,808 shares during the last quarter.

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.