ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) Shares Sold by Nicholas Investment Partners LP

Nicholas Investment Partners LP cut its stake in ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) by 32.8% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 62,107 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 30,287 shares during the period. Nicholas Investment Partners LP’s holdings in ArcBest were worth $6,650,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ARCB. BOKF NA lifted its stake in shares of ArcBest by 157.5% in the 2nd quarter. BOKF NA now owns 6,536 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $700,000 after purchasing an additional 3,998 shares during the period. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. grew its position in shares of ArcBest by 6.5% in the second quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 2,095 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $224,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the period. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of ArcBest during the second quarter worth about $588,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of ArcBest by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 525,471 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $56,267,000 after purchasing an additional 20,115 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its stake in ArcBest by 15.4% in the 2nd quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 23,892 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $2,558,000 after buying an additional 3,183 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.27% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at ArcBest

In other ArcBest news, Director Salvatore A. Abbate bought 1,000 shares of ArcBest stock in a transaction on Monday, August 12th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $103.93 per share, for a total transaction of $103,930.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 3,650 shares in the company, valued at $379,344.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ARCB has been the topic of several research reports. StockNews.com upgraded ArcBest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of ArcBest from $180.00 to $176.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 8th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of ArcBest from $136.00 to $131.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on ArcBest from $150.00 to $131.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of ArcBest from $134.00 to $133.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.18.

ArcBest Price Performance

ArcBest stock opened at $98.83 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.19. The company has a market capitalization of $2.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.46. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $110.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $119.42. ArcBest Co. has a 1 year low of $86.93 and a 1 year high of $153.60.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The transportation company reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by ($0.05). ArcBest had a return on equity of 15.98% and a net margin of 2.96%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.06 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.54 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that ArcBest Co. will post 7.25 earnings per share for the current year.

ArcBest Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th were paid a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 13th. ArcBest’s payout ratio is 9.66%.

ArcBest Profile

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.