Eisler Capital Management Ltd. Invests $7.70 Million in ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB)

Eisler Capital Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 83,700 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,695,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of ArcBest by 146.3% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 298 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in ArcBest in the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of ArcBest by 471.9% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 549 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 453 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in shares of ArcBest by 34.9% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,148 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $107,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp bought a new position in ArcBest during the fourth quarter valued at $206,000. 99.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on ARCB shares. Bank of America cut their price objective on ArcBest from $100.00 to $73.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $116.00 price target on shares of ArcBest in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of ArcBest from $97.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. UBS Group reduced their target price on ArcBest from $100.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on ArcBest from $102.00 to $83.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $88.75.

ArcBest Trading Up 6.1 %

Shares of ARCB stock opened at $62.50 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $66.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $88.77. ArcBest Co. has a 1-year low of $55.19 and a 1-year high of $129.83. The company has a market cap of $1.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.53, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.04.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The transportation company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $967.08 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $990.03 million. ArcBest had a net margin of 4.16% and a return on equity of 11.79%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.34 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that ArcBest Co. will post 7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ArcBest Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 9th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. ArcBest’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.35%.

Insider Buying and Selling at ArcBest

In other ArcBest news, CFO John Matthew Beasley purchased 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $74.89 per share, with a total value of $52,423.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 8,142 shares in the company, valued at approximately $609,754.38. This represents a 9.41 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

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.