Short Interest in Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ARCO) Decreases By 23.5%

Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ARCO) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,240,000 shares, a drop of 23.5% from the February 13th total of 1,620,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,340,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 0.9 days. Approximately 1.0% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Arcos Dorados

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Spire Wealth Management raised its position in Arcos Dorados by 27.2% during the fourth quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 7,210 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 1,540 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of Arcos Dorados in the 4th quarter valued at $54,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Arcos Dorados by 17.5% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 12,272 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 1,830 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Arcos Dorados during the 4th quarter worth $90,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Arcos Dorados during the 4th quarter worth $90,000. Institutional investors own 55.91% of the company’s stock.

Arcos Dorados Price Performance

Shares of ARCO stock traded down $0.29 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $8.13. The company had a trading volume of 1,164,197 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,282,267. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.61 and a beta of 1.09. Arcos Dorados has a one year low of $7.02 and a one year high of $11.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.63. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $7.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $8.26.

Arcos Dorados (NYSE:ARCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 12th. The restaurant operator reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.06. Arcos Dorados had a return on equity of 29.74% and a net margin of 3.25%. The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.15 billion. Equities analysts expect that Arcos Dorados will post 0.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Arcos Dorados Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 22nd will be issued a $0.06 dividend. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.95%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 22nd. Arcos Dorados’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.33%.

About Arcos Dorados

Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc operates as a franchisee of McDonald’s restaurants. It has the exclusive right to own, operate, and grant franchises of McDonald’s restaurants in 20 countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Argentina, Aruba, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curacao, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, the U.S.