Royce & Associates LP Increases Stock Holdings in ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB)

Royce & Associates LP raised its stake in shares of ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) by 9.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 85,185 shares of the transportation company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,602 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in ArcBest were worth $7,949,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of ArcBest by 146.3% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 298 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 177 shares during the period. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in ArcBest during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of ArcBest by 471.9% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 549 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 453 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC raised its position in shares of ArcBest by 60.6% in the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 546 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 206 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avior Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of ArcBest by 17.9% in the 3rd quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 625 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $68,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the period. 99.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ARCB. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $116.00 price target on shares of ArcBest in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of ArcBest from $110.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of ArcBest from $103.00 to $83.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of ArcBest from $105.00 to $96.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of ArcBest from $100.00 to $73.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, ArcBest presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $108.33.

ArcBest Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ARCB opened at $72.45 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.88, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.54. ArcBest Co. has a twelve month low of $70.96 and a twelve month high of $153.61. 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 company has a 50 day moving average of $89.16 and a 200 day moving average of $99.50.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The transportation company reported $1.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.22. ArcBest had a return on equity of 11.79% and a net margin of 4.16%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.47 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that ArcBest Co. will post 7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ArcBest Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. ArcBest’s payout ratio is presently 6.55%.

Insider Transactions at ArcBest

In other news, CFO John Matthew Beasley purchased 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $74.89 per share, for a total transaction of $52,423.00. Following the purchase, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,142 shares in the company, valued at approximately $609,754.38. This represents a 9.41 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.65% of the company’s stock.

ArcBest Company Profile

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.