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

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

ARCB has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted 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. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on ArcBest from $153.00 to $159.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on ArcBest from $141.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on ArcBest in a research note on Monday, January 29th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $148.00 price target for the company. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on ArcBest from $119.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th.

ArcBest Stock Performance

NASDAQ ARCB opened at $142.08 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $135.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $119.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.96, a PEG ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.49. ArcBest has a fifty-two week low of $82.18 and a fifty-two week high of $149.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.26.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last released 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 analyst estimates 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 quarter last year, the business posted $2.45 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that ArcBest will post 10.15 earnings per share for the current year.

ArcBest Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 16th were issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. ArcBest’s payout ratio is 6.07%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Erin K. Gattis sold 2,000 shares of ArcBest stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.58, for a total value of $283,160.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 32,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,565,530.26. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ARCB. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ArcBest by 13.0% during the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 2,737 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $220,000 after purchasing an additional 314 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. raised its position in shares of ArcBest by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 24,501 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,972,000 after buying an additional 1,061 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of ArcBest by 55.3% during the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 13,678 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,101,000 after buying an additional 4,871 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its position in shares of ArcBest by 10.9% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 21,438 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,726,000 after buying an additional 2,114 shares during the period. Finally, APG Asset Management N.V. purchased a new stake in shares of ArcBest during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,461,000. 99.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.