ProShare Advisors LLC Grows Stock Position in ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB)

ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) by 44.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 7,092 shares of the transportation company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,177 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in ArcBest were worth $662,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in ArcBest by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,771,123 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $258,601,000 after buying an additional 20,665 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in ArcBest by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,571,917 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $240,011,000 after buying an additional 220,325 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in ArcBest by 16.3% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 618,919 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $57,758,000 after buying an additional 86,867 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in ArcBest by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 426,155 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $39,769,000 after buying an additional 11,894 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in ArcBest by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 400,005 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $37,328,000 after buying an additional 5,739 shares in the last quarter. 99.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at ArcBest

In related news, CFO John Matthew Beasley purchased 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $74.89 per share, for a total transaction of $52,423.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $609,754.38. The trade was a 9.41% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ARCB has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on ArcBest from $80.00 to $60.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. TD Cowen cut their price target on ArcBest from $80.00 to $72.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on ArcBest from $102.00 to $83.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded ArcBest from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on ArcBest from $100.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $88.25.

ArcBest Stock Performance

Shares of ARCB stock opened at $60.77 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.39 billion, a PE ratio of 8.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.70. ArcBest Co. has a 52-week low of $55.19 and a 52-week high of $129.83. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $64.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $85.71. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The transportation company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $967.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $990.03 million. ArcBest had a net margin of 4.16% and a return on equity of 11.79%. The business’s revenue was down 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.34 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that ArcBest Co. will post 7 EPS for the current year.

ArcBest Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, May 9th were given a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 9th. ArcBest’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.35%.

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.