ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $123.33.

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ARCB. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of ArcBest from $125.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 1st. 22nd Century Group reiterated a “maintains” rating on shares of ArcBest in a research report on Friday, June 30th. Credit Suisse Group downgraded shares of ArcBest from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $104.00 to $127.00 in a research report on Monday, July 31st. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of ArcBest in a research report on Monday, June 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of ArcBest from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 31st.

ArcBest Trading Down 3.0 %

ArcBest stock opened at $100.98 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $106.24 and its 200-day moving average is $96.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35. ArcBest has a 1 year low of $68.00 and a 1 year high of $122.86. The company has a market cap of $2.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.67 and a beta of 1.58.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 28th. The transportation company reported $1.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04 by ($0.50). ArcBest had a return on equity of 20.06% and a net margin of 4.95%. The business had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $4.30 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 16.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that ArcBest will post 6.51 earnings per share for the current year.

ArcBest Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 9th were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 8th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. ArcBest’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.07%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ArcBest news, Director Steven Spinner sold 2,321 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.07, for a total transaction of $255,472.47. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 8,779 shares in the company, valued at approximately $966,304.53. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Steven Spinner sold 2,321 shares of ArcBest stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.07, for a total value of $255,472.47. Following the transaction, the director now owns 8,779 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $966,304.53. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kathleen D. Mcelligott sold 5,000 shares of ArcBest stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.24, for a total transaction of $551,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,900 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,083,536. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 51,922 shares of company stock worth $5,778,701. 1.65% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ArcBest

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. UBS Group AG increased its position in shares of ArcBest by 713.1% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 70,536 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $4,940,000 after acquiring an additional 61,861 shares in the last quarter. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. increased its position in shares of ArcBest by 14.2% in the first quarter. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. now owns 22,550 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,084,000 after acquiring an additional 2,800 shares in the last quarter. Gallacher Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of ArcBest in the first quarter worth approximately $265,000. EMC Capital Management increased its position in shares of ArcBest by 14.4% in the fourth quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 2,951 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $207,000 after acquiring an additional 371 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI purchased a new position in shares of ArcBest in the first quarter worth approximately $55,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.78% of the company’s stock.

About ArcBest

ArcBest Corporation provides freight transportation and integrated logistics services. It operates through three segments: Asset-Based, ArcBest, and FleetNet. The Asset-Based segment transports general commodities, such as food, textiles, apparel, furniture, appliances, chemicals, nonbulk petroleum products, rubber, plastics, metal and metal products, wood, glass, automotive parts, machinery, and miscellaneous manufactured products through less-than-truckload services.