Karooooo (NASDAQ:KARO) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Karooooo Ltd. (NASDAQ:KARO) gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $38.40, but opened at $39.97. Karooooo shares last traded at $40.37, with a volume of 6,041 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Karooooo from $31.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th.

Karooooo Stock Up 3.3 %

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $38.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $33.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $848.36 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.79 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 1.52.

Karooooo (NASDAQ:KARO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.03. Karooooo had a net margin of 18.70% and a return on equity of 27.88%. The business had revenue of $58.29 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.54 million. Sell-side analysts expect that Karooooo Ltd. will post 1.48 EPS for the current year.

Karooooo Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 8th were issued a $1.08 dividend. This represents a $4.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 10.89%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 8th. This is a positive change from Karooooo’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. Karooooo’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 340.16%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Karooooo

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Karooooo by 23.3% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 17,757 shares of the company’s stock valued at $520,000 after purchasing an additional 3,356 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Karooooo by 5.4% in the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 209,097 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,001,000 after purchasing an additional 10,705 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Karooooo by 50.6% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 4,096 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,000 after purchasing an additional 1,377 shares during the last quarter. Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Karooooo by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC now owns 175,349 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,138,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in shares of Karooooo by 26.0% in the 2nd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 120,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,516,000 after purchasing an additional 24,746 shares during the last quarter.

About Karooooo

Karooooo Ltd. provides mobility software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for connected vehicles in South Africa, rest of Africa, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and the United States. The company offers Fleet Telematics, a fleet management SaaS platform that provides real-time insights; LiveVision, which offers pro-active risk management and fleet visibility; MiFleet advanced fleet administration and business intelligence that provides cost management and administration capability services; and Karooooo Logistics, a software application for management of last mile delivery and general operational logistics.