ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.12

ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 30th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.12 per share by the transportation company on Tuesday, August 27th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 13th.

ArcBest has increased its dividend by an average of 14.5% per year over the last three years. ArcBest has a payout ratio of 4.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect ArcBest to earn $10.89 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 4.4%.

ArcBest Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ ARCB traded down $1.41 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $122.91. The stock had a trading volume of 5,515 shares, compared to its average volume of 298,577. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.23. ArcBest has a twelve month low of $86.93 and a twelve month high of $153.60. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $109.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $124.41. The firm has a market cap of $2.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.48.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The transportation company reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.53 by ($0.19). The business had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. ArcBest had a net margin of 2.80% and a return on equity of 15.27%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.58 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that ArcBest will post 8.26 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of ArcBest from $150.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of ArcBest from $133.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of ArcBest from $180.00 to $176.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of ArcBest from $159.00 to $150.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on shares of ArcBest from $110.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $143.85.

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.