ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) Upgraded by StockNews.com to “Buy”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Thursday morning.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of ArcBest from $136.00 to $131.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Stephens reiterated an overweight rating and set a $130.00 price objective on shares of ArcBest in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on ArcBest from $150.00 to $131.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on ArcBest from $180.00 to $176.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded ArcBest from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $122.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, ArcBest presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $133.50.

ArcBest Stock Performance

Shares of ARCB stock opened at $100.83 on Thursday. ArcBest has a 12-month low of $86.93 and a 12-month high of $153.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.46. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $107.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $115.77.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The transportation company reported $1.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.03 by ($0.05). ArcBest had a return on equity of 15.98% and a net margin of 2.96%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.06 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that ArcBest will post 7.21 EPS for the current year.

ArcBest Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th were paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 13th. ArcBest’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.66%.

Insider Transactions at ArcBest

In other news, Director Salvatore A. Abbate acquired 1,000 shares of ArcBest stock in a transaction on Monday, August 12th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $103.93 per share, with a total value of $103,930.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 3,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $379,344.50. This represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.65% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ArcBest

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quarry LP raised its position in ArcBest by 120.7% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 245 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the period. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in ArcBest by 70.9% during the 1st quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 188 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of ArcBest in the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ArcBest in the second quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, Cultivar Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of ArcBest during the second quarter worth approximately $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.27% of the company’s stock.

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.