ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the thirteen brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation and nine have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $146.69.

Several analysts have recently issued reports on ARCB shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on ArcBest from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Stephens boosted their target price on shares of ArcBest from $165.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on shares of ArcBest in a research note on Monday, March 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $168.00 target price for the company. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of ArcBest from $119.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of ArcBest from $141.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th.

ArcBest Trading Down 0.9 %

ARCB opened at $135.85 on Tuesday. ArcBest has a 52 week low of $82.18 and a 52 week high of $149.89. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $133.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $118.18. The firm has a market cap of $3.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.17, a P/E/G ratio of 0.57 and a beta of 1.49.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The transportation company reported $2.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $1.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. ArcBest had a return on equity of 15.91% and a net margin of 4.41%. The company’s revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.45 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that ArcBest will post 10.15 earnings per share for the current year.

ArcBest Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 16th were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. ArcBest’s payout ratio is currently 6.07%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Erin K. Gattis sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.58, for a total value of $283,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 32,247 shares in the company, valued at $4,565,530.26. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 1.65% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of ArcBest

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ARCB. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of ArcBest in the second quarter valued at $35,679,000. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of ArcBest by 776.2% in the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 358,297 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $33,114,000 after purchasing an additional 317,405 shares during the period. Cooper Creek Partners Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ArcBest in the third quarter valued at $29,108,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC purchased a new position in shares of ArcBest in the 2nd quarter worth $17,232,000. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of ArcBest in the 4th quarter worth $20,466,000. 99.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About ArcBest

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.