Entropy Technologies LP Buys New Shares in World Kinect Co. (NYSE:WKC)

Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of World Kinect Co. (NYSE:WKC) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 18,945 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $586,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its stake in World Kinect by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 30,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $779,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp raised its stake in World Kinect by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 52,688 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,394,000 after purchasing an additional 682 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in World Kinect by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 70,091 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,808,000 after purchasing an additional 773 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its stake in World Kinect by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 12,062 shares of the company’s stock valued at $319,000 after purchasing an additional 829 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. raised its stake in World Kinect by 20.7% during the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 6,927 shares of the company’s stock valued at $179,000 after purchasing an additional 1,189 shares during the last quarter. 97.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other World Kinect news, CEO Michael J. Kasbar sold 58,948 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.92, for a total transaction of $1,645,828.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,019,063 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,452,238.96. This represents a 5.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

World Kinect Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of World Kinect stock opened at $27.84 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $27.26. World Kinect Co. has a 12-month low of $19.97 and a 12-month high of $31.70.

World Kinect (NYSE:WKC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62. The business had revenue of $10.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.77 billion. World Kinect had a net margin of 0.30% and a return on equity of 6.29%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.58 EPS. Research analysts expect that World Kinect Co. will post 2.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

World Kinect announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, September 9th that authorizes the company to buyback $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 11% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

World Kinect Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. World Kinect’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 30.22%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WKC. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of World Kinect from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of World Kinect from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $28.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of World Kinect from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $33.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of World Kinect from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.20.

About World Kinect

World Kinect Corporation operates as an energy management company in the United States, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. This segment also offers fuel management, price risk management, ground handling, dispatch services, and trip planning services, such as flight planning and scheduling, weather reports and overflight permits; payment and processing services; and operates a web-based marketplace platform.