World Kinect Co. (NYSE:WKC) Shares Purchased by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of World Kinect Co. (NYSE:WKC) by 12.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,868 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,219 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in World Kinect were worth $299,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in World Kinect by 1.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,370,124 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,358,000 after purchasing an additional 22,077 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in World Kinect during the 4th quarter worth $50,707,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in World Kinect by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,341,484 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,465,000 after acquiring an additional 56,952 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of World Kinect by 18.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 256,126 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,918,000 after purchasing an additional 40,233 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of World Kinect in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,055,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at World Kinect

In other news, CEO Michael J. Kasbar sold 21,507 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.96, for a total value of $622,842.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,019,063 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,512,064.48. This trade represents a 2.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 2.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on World Kinect from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.80.

World Kinect Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WKC opened at $28.42 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. World Kinect Co. has a 52 week low of $21.38 and a 52 week high of $31.71. The stock has a market cap of $1.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.81, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.16. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $28.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.65.

World Kinect (NYSE:WKC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $9.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.57 billion. World Kinect had a return on equity of 6.43% and a net margin of 0.16%. As a group, research analysts forecast that World Kinect Co. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

World Kinect Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. World Kinect’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 64.15%.

World Kinect Profile

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.