Vanguard Group Inc. Trims Holdings in ArcBest Corporation $ARCB

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. reduced its stake in ArcBest Corporation by 2.6%, selling 72,754 shares and retaining approximately 2.7 million shares, representing about 11.66% of the company.
• ArcBest recently reported a quarterly earnings per share of $1.36, falling short of analysts' expectations of $1.48, with revenues declining 5.1% year-over-year to $1.02 billion.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share, set to be paid on August 22nd, resulting in an annualized dividend yield of 0.7%.

Vanguard Group Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of ArcBest Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCB - Free Report) by 2.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,698,369 shares of the transportation company's stock after selling 72,754 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 11.66% of ArcBest worth $190,451,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ARCB. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of ArcBest by 18.4% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 37,597 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $3,509,000 after acquiring an additional 5,835 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in shares of ArcBest by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 4,568 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $426,000 after acquiring an additional 380 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of ArcBest by 29.3% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 136,375 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $12,727,000 after acquiring an additional 30,906 shares during the last quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of ArcBest by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,463 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $230,000 after acquiring an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its position in ArcBest by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 45,078 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $4,207,000 after buying an additional 1,944 shares during the last quarter. 99.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ARCB has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on ArcBest from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Citigroup raised their target price on ArcBest from $67.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on ArcBest from $93.00 to $81.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. TD Cowen decreased their target price on ArcBest from $80.00 to $72.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on ArcBest from $84.00 to $73.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $90.00.

ArcBest Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ARCB traded down $2.22 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $74.87. The company had a trading volume of 323,767 shares, compared to its average volume of 390,309. The company has a market capitalization of $1.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.14, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.69. 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 stock's 50-day moving average price is $76.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $72.31.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The transportation company reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.48 by ($0.12). The company 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%. ArcBest's revenue for the quarter was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.98 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that ArcBest Corporation will post 7 earnings per share for the current year.

ArcBest Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 8th were given a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 8th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. ArcBest's payout ratio is 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.