ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) Short Interest Up 7.6% in March

ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,420,000 shares, a growth of 7.6% from the March 15th total of 1,320,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 294,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.8 days. Approximately 6.2% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on ARCB. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of ArcBest from $133.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of ArcBest from $168.00 to $164.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of ArcBest from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of ArcBest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of ArcBest from $153.00 to $159.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $151.54.

ArcBest Price Performance

NASDAQ:ARCB opened at $149.25 on Wednesday. ArcBest has a 1-year low of $82.18 and a 1-year high of $153.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $140.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $122.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.51 billion, a PE ratio of 18.87, a P/E/G ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.49.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The transportation company reported $2.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.25. ArcBest had a return on equity of 15.91% and a net margin of 4.41%. The business had revenue of $1.09 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.45 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that ArcBest will post 10.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ArcBest Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 16th were issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. ArcBest’s dividend payout ratio is 6.07%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other ArcBest news, insider Erin K. Gattis sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.58, for a total value of $283,160.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 32,247 shares in the company, valued at $4,565,530.26. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ArcBest

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Evergreen Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in ArcBest during the 3rd quarter valued at $203,000. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of ArcBest by 385.8% during the third quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 26,717 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,716,000 after buying an additional 21,217 shares in the last quarter. Wakefield Asset Management LLLP acquired a new stake in shares of ArcBest during the fourth quarter worth $806,000. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of ArcBest by 10.5% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 378,206 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $38,445,000 after buying an additional 35,968 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lifted its holdings in shares of ArcBest by 31.3% during the third quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 55,199 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $5,611,000 after buying an additional 13,165 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.27% of the company’s stock.

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.