ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) Short Interest Up 7.6% in March

ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,420,000 shares, an increase of 7.6% from the March 15th total of 1,320,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 294,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.8 days. Approximately 6.2% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Activity at ArcBest

In other ArcBest news, insider Erin K. Gattis sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.18% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ArcBest

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARCB. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in ArcBest by 49.3% in the 4th 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. boosted its stake in ArcBest by 70.9% in the 1st quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 188 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake in ArcBest by 15,450.0% in the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 311 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in ArcBest in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new position in ArcBest in the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ARCB shares. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of ArcBest from $141.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on ArcBest from $133.00 to $149.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of ArcBest from $153.00 to $159.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of ArcBest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Stephens raised their price objective on shares of ArcBest from $165.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $151.54.

ArcBest Price Performance

ArcBest stock traded up $0.76 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $149.95. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 353,145 shares, compared to its average volume of 301,705. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.96, a P/E/G ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.49. ArcBest has a twelve month low of $82.18 and a twelve month high of $153.60. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $140.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $122.93.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The transportation company reported $2.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.25. ArcBest had a net margin of 4.41% and a return on equity of 15.91%. The firm had revenue of $1.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.45 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that ArcBest will post 10.08 earnings per share for the current year.

ArcBest Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 16th were paid a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. ArcBest’s dividend payout ratio is 6.07%.

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.