J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT) Receives $203.00 Average Price Target from Analysts

J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-four research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $203.00.

JBHT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Susquehanna upgraded shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and upped their price target for the company from $160.00 to $240.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $245.00 target price on shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on J.B. Hunt Transport Services from $173.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $227.00 price target on J.B. Hunt Transport Services in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on J.B. Hunt Transport Services from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 8th.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Stock Performance

Shares of JBHT stock opened at $197.64 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.19, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $215.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $182.96. J.B. Hunt Transport Services has a 12 month low of $122.79 and a 12 month high of $236.00.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services (NASDAQ:JBHT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 15th. The transportation company reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.81 by $0.09. J.B. Hunt Transport Services had a return on equity of 16.33% and a net margin of 4.99%.The company had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.53 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that J.B. Hunt Transport Services will post 6.37 EPS for the current year.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 6th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 6th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. This is a boost from J.B. Hunt Transport Services’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. J.B. Hunt Transport Services’s payout ratio is currently 29.32%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Bradley W. Hicks sold 4,028 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.13, for a total value of $906,823.64. Following the transaction, the insider owned 30,395 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,842,826.35. The trade was a 11.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Darren P. Field sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $219.76, for a total transaction of $1,977,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 10,736 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,359,343.36. This represents a 45.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 25,945 shares of company stock worth $5,656,495. 2.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of J.B. Hunt Transport Services

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of JBHT. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its position in shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services by 74.3% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 15,643 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $2,314,000 after purchasing an additional 6,668 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in J.B. Hunt Transport Services by 3.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 433,661 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $64,160,000 after buying an additional 13,729 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in J.B. Hunt Transport Services by 27.8% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 1,770 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $262,000 after buying an additional 385 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $539,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services by 11.1% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 13,618 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,956,000 after buying an additional 1,363 shares in the last quarter. 74.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About J.B. Hunt Transport Services

J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc is a leading provider of transportation and logistics solutions headquartered in Lowell, Arkansas. The company offers a comprehensive suite of services designed to move freight efficiently across North America, including intermodal, dedicated contract services, full truckload, less-than-truckload (LTL), final mile delivery and specialized transport.

In its intermodal segment, J.B. Hunt leverages a network of rail and truck assets to transport containers and trailers on major U.S.