MetLife Investment Management LLC Acquires 12,345 Shares of Aramark (NYSE:ARMK)

MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its position in Aramark (NYSE:ARMK - Free Report) by 9.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 148,480 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 12,345 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.06% of Aramark worth $5,540,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ARMK. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of Aramark by 63.2% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 13,593,734 shares of the company's stock valued at $507,182,000 after acquiring an additional 5,263,817 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Aramark during the 4th quarter valued at $88,949,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Aramark by 29.5% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Fiduciary Management Inc. WI raised its stake in shares of Aramark by 8.1% in 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. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Aramark during the fourth quarter valued at $10,324,000.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Aramark from $45.00 to $40.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Aramark from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $47.00 price objective on shares of Aramark in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Aramark in a report on Monday, February 24th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $48.00 target price on the stock. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $43.08.

Aramark Stock Performance

NYSE ARMK traded down $0.18 on Tuesday, hitting $32.84. 246,043 shares of the company traded hands, 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 business's 50 day moving average price is $34.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.10. The company has a market capitalization of $8.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.89 and a beta of 1.37. Aramark has a 52-week low of $29.82 and a 52-week high of $42.49.

Aramark (NYSE:ARMK - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $4.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.61 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.41 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Aramark will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current year.

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.