Meritage Portfolio Management Grows Stock Holdings in ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB)

Meritage Portfolio Management increased its stake in shares of ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) by 12.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,138 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 458 shares during the period. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in ArcBest were worth $386,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARCB. State Street Corp raised its position in ArcBest by 1.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 957,410 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $103,831,000 after acquiring an additional 17,542 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in ArcBest by 24.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 221,507 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $24,022,000 after acquiring an additional 43,707 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of ArcBest by 92.3% in the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 10,753 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,166,000 after buying an additional 5,161 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of ArcBest by 16.0% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 116,672 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $12,653,000 after buying an additional 16,103 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of 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 last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on ARCB shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of ArcBest from $130.00 to $117.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of ArcBest from $110.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. TD Cowen lowered shares of ArcBest from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $131.00 to $114.00 in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of ArcBest from $109.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of ArcBest from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, ArcBest currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $118.91.

ArcBest Price Performance

ARCB opened at $94.00 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. ArcBest Co. has a 52-week low of $90.25 and a 52-week high of $153.60. The company has a 50 day moving average of $100.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $105.21. The company has a market cap of $2.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.51.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 31st. The transportation company reported $1.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.47 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that ArcBest Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current year.

ArcBest Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. ArcBest’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.55%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ArcBest news, Director Craig E. Philip sold 3,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.91, for a total transaction of $428,649.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 23,250 shares in the company, valued at $2,555,407.50. The trade was a 14.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.65% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.