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

ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) announced 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 dividend yield of 0.49%.

ArcBest has raised its dividend by an average of 14.5% per year over the last three years. ArcBest has a payout ratio of 4.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ARCB opened at $98.31 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $102.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $106.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. ArcBest has a 52 week low of $91.01 and a 52 week high of $153.60. The firm has a market cap of $2.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.53.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The transportation company reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.84 by ($0.20). ArcBest had a net margin of 4.54% and a return on equity of 14.27%. The company had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.31 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that ArcBest will post 6.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Michael E. Newcity sold 10,443 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were 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 owns 5,051 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $609,150.60. The trade was a 67.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Craig E. Philip sold 3,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.91, for a total transaction of $428,649.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 23,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,555,407.50. This represents a 14.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.65% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of ArcBest from $115.00 to $105.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on ArcBest from $110.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. UBS Group decreased their target price on ArcBest from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 4th. StockNews.com raised ArcBest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen lowered ArcBest from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $131.00 to $114.00 in a report on Monday, October 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $125.00.

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.