Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Increases Position in ArcBest Corporation $ARCB

Key Points

• Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in ArcBest Corporation by 28.0%, purchasing an additional 85,388 shares during the first quarter, bringing its total ownership to 389,813 shares valued at approximately $27.5 million.
• Various hedge funds have significantly raised their investments in ArcBest, with Signaturefd LLC's stake growing by 477.6%, and around 99.27% of the stock is now owned by institutional investors.
• Wall Street analysts have mixed ratings for ArcBest, with a consensus hold rating and price targets ranging from $67 to $90, with an average earnings per share forecast of $7 for the current fiscal year.

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of ArcBest Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCB - Free Report) by 28.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 389,813 shares of the transportation company's stock after acquiring an additional 85,388 shares during the quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. owned about 1.70% of ArcBest worth $27,513,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ARCB. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. raised its position in ArcBest by 7.1% in the 1st quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 4,303 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $304,000 after purchasing an additional 285 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC grew its holdings in ArcBest by 477.6% in the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 387 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the period. CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of ArcBest by 338.8% during the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 452 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 349 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in shares of ArcBest by 4.9% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 7,555 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $533,000 after purchasing an additional 355 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stephens Inc. AR increased its stake in shares of ArcBest by 5.1% during the first quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 8,540 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $603,000 after purchasing an additional 412 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.27% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on ARCB. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $85.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of ArcBest in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of ArcBest from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $84.00 to $101.00 in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of ArcBest from $84.00 to $73.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of ArcBest from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of ArcBest to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Six investment 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, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $89.17.

ArcBest Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ARCB traded up $2.19 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $72.88. The company had a trading volume of 60,992 shares, compared to its average volume of 365,181. ArcBest Corporation has a 1 year low of $55.19 and a 1 year high of $123.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $76.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $71.01. The stock has a market cap of $1.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.83, a P/E/G ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 1.69.

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 for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.48 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.03 billion. ArcBest had a net margin of 3.90% and a return on equity of 8.67%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.98 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that ArcBest Corporation will post 7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ArcBest Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 8th were paid 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 dividend yield of 0.7%. ArcBest's payout ratio is currently 7.14%.

ArcBest 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.