Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Acquires 19,205 Shares of Aramark (NYSE:ARMK)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Aramark (NYSE:ARMK - Free Report) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,953,115 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 19,205 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned 1.87% of Aramark worth $184,802,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ARMK. 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 buying an additional 5,263,817 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Aramark during the 4th quarter worth approximately $88,949,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew 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 valued at $317,551,000 after purchasing an additional 1,940,214 shares during the period. Fiduciary Management Inc. WI increased its stake in Aramark by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Fiduciary Management Inc. WI now owns 11,454,740 shares of the company's stock valued at $427,376,000 after purchasing an additional 860,179 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Aramark in the fourth quarter worth $10,324,000.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ARMK has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Aramark from $45.00 to $40.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. StockNews.com downgraded Aramark from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup assumed coverage on Aramark in a report on Monday, February 24th. They set a "buy" rating and a $48.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $47.00 target price on shares of Aramark in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Aramark currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $43.08.

Aramark Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE ARMK traded down $0.18 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $32.84. The company had a trading volume of 246,043 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,075,762. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $34.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.10. The company has a market capitalization of $8.70 billion, a PE ratio of 25.89 and a beta of 1.37. Aramark has a one year low of $29.82 and a one year high of $42.49.

Aramark (NYSE:ARMK - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.03. Aramark had a return on equity of 14.72% and a net margin of 1.94%. The firm had revenue of $4.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.61 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.41 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Aramark will post 1.92 EPS for the current year.

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.