Scientech Research LLC Makes New $337,000 Investment in ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB)

Scientech Research LLC bought a new stake in shares of ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 3,145 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $337,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. grew its position in ArcBest by 34.7% in the 2nd quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 583,762 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $62,509,000 after acquiring an additional 150,467 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of ArcBest by 4.0% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 525,471 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $56,267,000 after purchasing an additional 20,115 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in shares of ArcBest by 158.7% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 191,987 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $20,558,000 after purchasing an additional 117,774 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in ArcBest by 9.6% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 165,175 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $23,537,000 after buying an additional 14,463 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in ArcBest by 20.5% during the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 154,972 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $18,629,000 after buying an additional 26,411 shares in the last quarter. 99.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at ArcBest

In other ArcBest news, Director Salvatore A. Abbate acquired 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 12th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $103.93 per share, for a total transaction of $103,930.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 3,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $379,344.50. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.65% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on ARCB shares. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of ArcBest from $150.00 to $131.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on ArcBest from $180.00 to $176.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $130.00 target price on shares of ArcBest in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. StockNews.com cut ArcBest from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered ArcBest from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $122.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, ArcBest presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $133.18.

ArcBest Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ ARCB opened at $108.45 on Tuesday. ArcBest Co. has a 1-year low of $86.93 and a 1-year high of $153.60. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $108.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $116.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The transportation company reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.03 by ($0.05). ArcBest had a net margin of 2.96% and a return on equity of 15.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.06 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.54 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that ArcBest Co. will post 7.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ArcBest Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 13th were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 13th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. 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.