Aramark Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.11 (NYSE:ARMK)

Aramark (NYSE:ARMK - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 30th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.105 per share on Wednesday, May 28th. This represents a $0.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.25%.

Aramark has decreased its dividend by an average of 3.9% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 1 years. Aramark has a payout ratio of 18.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Aramark to earn $2.24 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.42 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 18.8%.

Aramark Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ARMK traded up $0.49 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $33.58. 2,915,765 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,085,770. The firm has a market cap of $8.90 billion, a PE ratio of 26.44 and a beta of 1.37. 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 fifty-two week low of $29.82 and a fifty-two week high of $42.49. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $33.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.97.

Aramark (NYSE:ARMK - Get Free Report) last issued 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.61 billion. Aramark had a return on equity of 14.72% and a net margin of 1.94%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.41 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Aramark will post 1.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ARMK. Citigroup started coverage on Aramark in a research report on Monday, February 24th. They set a "buy" rating and a $48.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com lowered 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 objective on shares of Aramark in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Aramark from $45.00 to $40.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $43.08.

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.