ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) Short Interest Down 19.2% in September

ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 1,430,000 shares, a decline of 19.2% from the September 15th total of 1,770,000 shares. Approximately 6.2% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 264,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.4 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America cut their target price on ArcBest from $102.00 to $99.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of ArcBest from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $122.00 to $112.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of ArcBest from $150.00 to $131.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered 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. Finally, Citigroup started coverage on ArcBest in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $111.00 target price on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $127.92.

ArcBest Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ ARCB opened at $106.31 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $2.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.46. ArcBest has a 12-month low of $86.93 and a 12-month high of $153.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $105.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $114.45.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The transportation company reported $1.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.03 by ($0.05). ArcBest had a return on equity of 15.98% and a net margin of 2.96%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.06 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.54 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that ArcBest will post 7.06 EPS for the current year.

ArcBest Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 13th were issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 13th. ArcBest’s payout ratio is currently 9.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ArcBest news, Director Salvatore A. Abbate bought 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 12th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $103.93 per share, with a total value of $103,930.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 3,650 shares in the company, valued at $379,344.50. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.65% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ArcBest

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of ArcBest by 34.7% in the 2nd quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 583,762 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $62,509,000 after acquiring an additional 150,467 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in shares of ArcBest by 158.7% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 191,987 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $20,558,000 after acquiring an additional 117,774 shares during the period. Emerald Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of ArcBest during the second quarter valued at approximately $6,812,000. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of ArcBest by 1,455.0% during the second quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 63,399 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $6,789,000 after acquiring an additional 59,322 shares during the period. Finally, Zimmer Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of ArcBest during the first quarter valued at approximately $7,838,000. Institutional investors 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.