Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. $ARCO Stock: Private Management Group Inc. Raises Stake

Private Management Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ARCO) by 3.0% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,416,163 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 98,070 shares during the quarter. Private Management Group Inc.’s holdings in Arcos Dorados were worth $24,426,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Arcos Dorados by 7.9% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 23,174,841 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $191,192,000 after acquiring an additional 1,703,169 shares in the last quarter. Moerus Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arcos Dorados by 19.9% in the first quarter. Moerus Capital Management LLC now owns 4,263,589 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $35,175,000 after purchasing an additional 706,683 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in Arcos Dorados by 132.8% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 3,483,732 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $28,741,000 after purchasing an additional 1,987,271 shares in the last quarter. Globeflex Capital L P bought a new position in Arcos Dorados in the second quarter worth approximately $6,574,000. Finally, O Keefe Stevens Advisory Inc. grew its stake in Arcos Dorados by 2.7% in the third quarter. O Keefe Stevens Advisory Inc. now owns 694,787 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,968,000 after purchasing an additional 18,068 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 55.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on ARCO shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Arcos Dorados from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $9.00 to $10.50 in a report on Friday, July 17th. Bank of America cut Arcos Dorados from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $9.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, October 26th. Zacks Research upgraded Arcos Dorados from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 20th. Weiss Ratings raised Arcos Dorados from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Arcos Dorados from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $9.75.

Arcos Dorados Trading Up 1.1%

NYSE ARCO opened at $7.05 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.88. The company has a market capitalization of $1.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.78 and a beta of 0.54. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $7.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $8.18. Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $6.67 and a one year high of $9.75.

Arcos Dorados (NYSE:ARCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 14th. The restaurant operator reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.07. Arcos Dorados had a net margin of 5.15% and a return on equity of 12.50%. The business had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. Equities analysts forecast that Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. will post 0.80 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Arcos Dorados

Arcos Dorados Holdings operates McDonald’s restaurants in Latin America and the Caribbean under a master franchise agreement. It is the largest independent McDonald’s franchisee in the world by restaurant count, with operations across 20 countries and territories in the region.

The company’s restaurants serve McDonald’s menu items, including burgers, fries, chicken, breakfast foods, desserts and beverages. Its services also include McCafé offerings, delivery and digital ordering through channels such as mobile apps and kiosks.

Arcos Dorados was formed in 2007 when McDonald’s separated its Latin American and Caribbean operations into a regional franchise business.