Morgan Stanley Has Lowered Expectations for ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) Stock Price

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) had its price target decreased by Morgan Stanley from $160.00 to $145.00 in a research report released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the transportation company’s stock.

ARCB has been the subject of several other research reports. Citigroup raised their target price on ArcBest from $110.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. UBS Group cut their target price on ArcBest from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on ArcBest from $130.00 to $117.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 4th. TD Cowen downgraded ArcBest from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $131.00 to $114.00 in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on ArcBest from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $118.91.

ArcBest Price Performance

Shares of ARCB stock opened at $91.40 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $100.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $105.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. ArcBest has a 12 month low of $90.25 and a 12 month high of $153.60. The company has a market capitalization of $2.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.51.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 31st. The transportation company reported $1.33 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by $0.22. ArcBest had a return on equity of 11.79% and a net margin of 4.16%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.47 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that ArcBest will post 7.5 EPS for the current year.

ArcBest Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. ArcBest’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.55%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Craig E. Philip sold 3,900 shares of ArcBest stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the director now directly owns 23,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,555,407.50. The trade was a 14.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Michael E. Newcity sold 10,443 shares of ArcBest stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.60, for a total value of $1,259,425.80. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,051 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $609,150.60. This trade represents a 67.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ArcBest

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ARCB. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in ArcBest by 1.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 957,410 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $103,831,000 after acquiring an additional 17,542 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in ArcBest by 24.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 221,507 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $24,022,000 after acquiring an additional 43,707 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in ArcBest by 92.3% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 10,753 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,166,000 after acquiring an additional 5,161 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in ArcBest by 16.0% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 116,672 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $12,653,000 after acquiring an additional 16,103 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in ArcBest by 342.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 43,134 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $4,678,000 after acquiring an additional 33,386 shares in the last quarter. 99.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.