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

ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) was the target of a large decline in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,320,000 shares, a decline of 7.0% from the March 31st total of 1,420,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 328,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.0 days. Currently, 5.7% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ArcBest

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of ArcBest by 49.3% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 227 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. increased its position in ArcBest by 70.9% during the 1st quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 188 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP lifted its holdings in shares of ArcBest by 15,450.0% during the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 311 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in ArcBest in the 4th quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of ArcBest by 45.8% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 363 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 114 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ARCB. TD Cowen upped their price objective on ArcBest from $141.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of ArcBest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of ArcBest from $141.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of ArcBest from $153.00 to $159.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of ArcBest from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $151.54.

ArcBest Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ARCB traded down $16.57 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $112.88. The stock had a trading volume of 644,120 shares, compared to its average volume of 310,542. ArcBest has a twelve month low of $82.18 and a twelve month high of $153.60. The stock has a market cap of $2.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.54, a PEG ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 1.49. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $139.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $125.62. 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 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. ArcBest had a net margin of 4.41% and a return on equity of 15.91%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.45 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that ArcBest will post 10.05 earnings per share for the current year.

ArcBest Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be issued a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. ArcBest’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.07%.

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.