ArcBest Corporation $ARCB Stock Position Lifted by Alliancebernstein L.P.

Key Points

• AllianceBernstein L.P. increased its shareholding in ArcBest Corporation by 3.6% in the first quarter, now owning 2,664,431 shares worth approximately $188 million.
• Several institutional investors, including Crossmark Global Holdings and Signaturefd LLC, also expanded their positions in ArcBest during the same period, indicating strong institutional interest.
• ArcBest reported a quarterly EPS of $1.36, which fell short of analysts' expectations of $1.48, reflecting a year-over-year revenue decline of 5.1%.

Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in ArcBest Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCB - Free Report) by 3.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,664,431 shares of the transportation company's stock after purchasing an additional 92,514 shares during the quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned 11.63% of ArcBest worth $188,056,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Signaturefd LLC raised its holdings in shares of ArcBest by 477.6% in the 1st quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 387 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC raised its holdings in shares of ArcBest by 338.8% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 452 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 349 shares in the last quarter. Curat Global LLC bought a new stake in shares of ArcBest in the 1st quarter worth approximately $82,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of ArcBest by 185.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,435 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $101,000 after purchasing an additional 932 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of ArcBest in the 1st quarter worth approximately $143,000. 99.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on ARCB. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $85.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of ArcBest in a report on Tuesday, June 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of ArcBest from $75.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of ArcBest to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of ArcBest from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of ArcBest from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $63.00 to $74.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $89.17.

ArcBest Stock Down 1.2%

ARCB traded down $0.87 on Wednesday, reaching $70.65. 48,400 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 365,950. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $76.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $71.01. ArcBest Corporation has a 52-week low of $55.19 and a 52-week high of $123.25. The company has a market cap of $1.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.49, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96.

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

ArcBest Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, August 8th were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 8th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. ArcBest's payout ratio is presently 7.14%.

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.