Morgan Stanley Has Lowered Expectations for ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) Stock Price

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ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB - Free Report) had its price objective trimmed by Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $130.00 in a research note published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the transportation company's stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on ArcBest from $60.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on ArcBest from $84.00 to $73.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America raised ArcBest from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $63.00 to $74.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised ArcBest from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $101.00 in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on ArcBest from $83.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $90.00.

ArcBest Stock Down 4.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:ARCB traded down $3.01 on Thursday, hitting $70.12. 495,447 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 429,118. The firm's 50-day moving average is $74.14 and its 200 day moving average is $75.36. The company has a market capitalization of $1.61 billion, a PE ratio of 10.43, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.69. ArcBest has a 1-year low of $55.19 and a 1-year high of $123.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 0.96.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The transportation company reported $1.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.48 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. ArcBest had a return on equity of 8.67% and a net margin of 3.90%. The company's revenue was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.98 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that ArcBest will post 7 EPS for the current year.

ArcBest Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, August 8th will be paid a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 8th. ArcBest's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.35%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ArcBest

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ARCB. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new position in ArcBest in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $439,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in ArcBest by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,771,123 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $258,601,000 after purchasing an additional 20,665 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in ArcBest by 47.2% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 326,006 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $30,423,000 after purchasing an additional 104,499 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in ArcBest in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $5,826,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in ArcBest by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,406 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $691,000 after purchasing an additional 305 shares in the last quarter. 99.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.