ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) saw a significant decline in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,130,000 shares, a decline of 18.1% from the March 31st total of 1,380,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 369,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.1 days. Currently, 5.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling at ArcBest

In related news, CFO John Matthew Beasley bought 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $74.89 per share, for a total transaction of $52,423.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $609,754.38. This represents a 9.41 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in ArcBest by 342.5% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 43,134 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $4,678,000 after buying an additional 33,386 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in ArcBest during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $485,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in ArcBest by 24.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 221,507 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $24,022,000 after purchasing an additional 43,707 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in ArcBest in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $375,000. Finally, Lake Hills Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in ArcBest in the fourth quarter worth $414,000. 99.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ARCB has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America cut their price objective on ArcBest from $100.00 to $73.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of ArcBest from $100.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of ArcBest from $93.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $116.00 target price on shares of ArcBest in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on ArcBest from $160.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, ArcBest presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $88.75.

ArcBest Price Performance

Shares of ARCB stock opened at $57.81 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.89, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.62. ArcBest has a 12 month low of $55.19 and a 12 month high of $129.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $68.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $90.28.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The transportation company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.01). ArcBest had a return on equity of 11.79% and a net margin of 4.16%. The business had revenue of $967.08 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $990.03 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.34 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that ArcBest will post 7 EPS for the current year.

ArcBest Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 9th will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 9th. ArcBest’s payout ratio is 6.55%.

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.