Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Has $23.99 Million Stock Position in ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB)

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC boosted its stake in shares of ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) by 4.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 257,060 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 10,390 shares during the period. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC’s holdings in ArcBest were worth $23,989,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ARCB. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in shares of ArcBest by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,571,917 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $240,011,000 after acquiring an additional 220,325 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in ArcBest by 47.2% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 326,006 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $30,423,000 after purchasing an additional 104,499 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in ArcBest by 16.3% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 618,919 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $57,758,000 after purchasing an additional 86,867 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in ArcBest during the 4th quarter valued at $5,826,000. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of ArcBest by 342.5% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 43,134 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $4,678,000 after purchasing an additional 33,386 shares in the last quarter. 99.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ARCB has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on ArcBest from $96.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on ArcBest from $109.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on ArcBest from $160.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of ArcBest from $103.00 to $83.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $116.00 price objective on shares of ArcBest in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, ArcBest presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $107.00.

ArcBest Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ARCB opened at $63.63 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.55. The business has a 50-day moving average of $81.99 and a two-hundred day moving average of $96.67. ArcBest Co. has a fifty-two week low of $57.80 and a fifty-two week high of $153.61. 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 earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The transportation company reported $1.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.22. ArcBest had a return on equity of 11.79% and a net margin of 4.16%. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.47 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that ArcBest Co. will post 7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ArcBest Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. ArcBest’s payout ratio is presently 6.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other ArcBest news, CFO John Matthew Beasley bought 700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $74.89 per share, with a total value of $52,423.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $609,754.38. This represents a 9.41 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

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.