ArcBest Co. (ARCB) To Go Ex-Dividend on February 11th

ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28th,RTT News reports. Investors 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 dividend payout ratio of 4.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Down 2.7 %

ARCB stock opened at $95.63 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.04. ArcBest has a 52-week low of $91.01 and a 52-week high of $153.60. The company has a 50-day moving average of $101.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $106.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.53.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The transportation company reported $1.64 earnings per share (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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.07 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.31 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that ArcBest will post 6.02 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Michael E. Newcity sold 10,443 shares of the 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,051 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $609,150.60. This represents a 67.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Craig E. Philip sold 3,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 23,250 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,555,407.50. This represents a 14.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen lowered shares of ArcBest from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $131.00 to $114.00 in a report on Monday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of ArcBest from $115.00 to $105.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of ArcBest from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of ArcBest from $110.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of ArcBest from $133.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $122.91.

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.