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

ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of 0.12 per share by the transportation company on Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%.

ArcBest has increased its dividend by an average of 14.5% per year over the last three years. ArcBest has a payout ratio of 4.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect ArcBest to earn $7.50 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 6.4%.

ArcBest Stock Performance

NASDAQ ARCB traded down $1.94 on Tuesday, reaching $98.31. The stock had a trading volume of 179,337 shares, compared to its average volume of 238,657. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $102.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $106.30. ArcBest has a 1-year low of $91.01 and a 1-year high of $153.60. The company has a market cap of $2.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.04.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The transportation company reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.84 by ($0.20). ArcBest had a return on equity of 14.27% and a net margin of 4.54%. The firm had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.31 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that ArcBest will post 6.02 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Michael E. Newcity sold 10,443 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.60, for a total transaction of $1,259,425.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 5,051 shares in the company, valued at $609,150.60. The trade was a 67.40 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Craig E. Philip sold 3,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.91, for a total transaction of $428,649.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 23,250 shares in the company, valued at $2,555,407.50. This represents a 14.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ARCB has been the subject of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of ArcBest from $133.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on ArcBest from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on ArcBest from $115.00 to $105.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on ArcBest from $175.00 to $170.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Wolfe Research cut shares of ArcBest from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $125.00.

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.