Encompass Capital Advisors LLC Takes $12.66 Million Position in ArcBest Corporation $ARCB

Encompass Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in ArcBest Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCB) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 164,355 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,657,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Engineers Gate Manager LP increased its stake in ArcBest by 109.0% in the 2nd quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 25,842 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,990,000 after acquiring an additional 13,475 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in shares of ArcBest by 200.2% during the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 5,688 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $438,000 after purchasing an additional 3,793 shares in the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of ArcBest by 5.4% in the second quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 80,239 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $6,179,000 after purchasing an additional 4,123 shares during the last quarter. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in ArcBest in the second quarter valued at approximately $361,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in ArcBest by 19.7% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 147,554 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $11,363,000 after purchasing an additional 24,328 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ARCB. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of ArcBest from $87.00 to $83.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on ArcBest from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Bank of America dropped their price target on ArcBest from $73.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 2nd. Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of ArcBest in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their target price on ArcBest from $67.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $85.00.

ArcBest Trading Up 0.1%

NASDAQ ARCB opened at $76.57 on Friday. ArcBest Corporation has a 1-year low of $55.19 and a 1-year high of $111.33. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $69.53 and a 200-day moving average of $71.98. The firm has a market cap of $1.72 billion, a PE ratio of 18.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.85 and a beta of 1.52.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The transportation company reported $1.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.37 by $0.09. ArcBest had a return on equity of 8.24% and a net margin of 2.41%.The business had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.64 EPS. ArcBest’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that ArcBest Corporation will post 7 EPS for the current year.

ArcBest Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Investors of record on Friday, November 14th were paid a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 14th. ArcBest’s payout ratio is presently 11.40%.

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.