ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) Reaches New 52-Week Low Following Analyst Downgrade

ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) reached a new 52-week low on Monday after UBS Group lowered their price target on the stock from $110.00 to $100.00. UBS Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. ArcBest traded as low as $90.25 and last traded at $92.07, with a volume of 9117 shares. The stock had previously closed at $95.61.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of ArcBest from $160.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on ArcBest from $109.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. TD Cowen cut ArcBest from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $131.00 to $114.00 in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on ArcBest from $105.00 to $96.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered ArcBest from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $118.91.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ArcBest news, Director Craig E. Philip sold 3,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.91, for a total value of $428,649.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 23,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,555,407.50. This trade represents a 14.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of ArcBest

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ARCB. CIBC Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in ArcBest during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $216,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its stake in ArcBest by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 4,429 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $419,000 after buying an additional 306 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ArcBest by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 114,189 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $10,656,000 after acquiring an additional 2,169 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D grew its position in shares of ArcBest by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 19,489 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,819,000 after acquiring an additional 1,219 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers grew its position in shares of ArcBest by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 67,079 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $6,260,000 after acquiring an additional 3,278 shares during the last quarter. 99.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

ArcBest Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.01. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $100.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $105.28. The firm has a market cap of $2.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.02, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.51.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The transportation company reported $1.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.22. ArcBest had a net margin of 4.16% and a return on equity of 11.79%. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.47 EPS. On average, analysts expect that ArcBest Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ArcBest Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. ArcBest’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.55%.

ArcBest Company Profile

ArcBest Corporation, an integrated logistics company, engages in the provision of ground, air, and ocean transportation solutions. It operates through two segments: Asset-Based and Asset-Light. The Asset-Based segment provides less-than-truckload (LTL) services, that transports general commodities, such as food, textiles, apparel, furniture, appliances, chemicals, non-bulk petroleum products, rubber, plastics, metal and metal products, wood, glass, automotive parts, machinery, and miscellaneous manufactured products.