ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) Announces $0.12 Quarterly Dividend

ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of 0.12 per share by the transportation company on Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th.

ArcBest has raised its dividend payment by an average of 14.5% annually over the last three years. ArcBest has a payout ratio of 4.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect ArcBest to earn $7.50 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 6.4%.

ArcBest Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ARCB opened at $95.63 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.24 billion, a PE ratio of 11.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.53. ArcBest has a twelve month low of $91.01 and a twelve month high of $153.60. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $101.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $106.11.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 1st. The transportation company reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.84 by ($0.20). ArcBest had a net margin of 4.54% and a return on equity of 14.27%. The firm had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.07 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.31 earnings per share. ArcBest’s revenue was down 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that ArcBest will post 6.02 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ARCB has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of ArcBest from $130.00 to $117.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of ArcBest from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of ArcBest from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of ArcBest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of ArcBest from $110.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, ArcBest currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $122.91.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Craig E. Philip sold 3,900 shares of ArcBest stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.91, for a total value of $428,649.00. Following the transaction, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Michael E. Newcity sold 10,443 shares of ArcBest stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.60, for a total transaction of $1,259,425.80. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 5,051 shares in the company, valued at approximately $609,150.60. This trade represents a 67.40 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.65% of the company’s stock.

ArcBest Company 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.