Saxon Interests Inc. Buys Shares of 1,827 ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB)

Saxon Interests Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 1,827 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $220,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in ArcBest by 15,450.0% in the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 311 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in ArcBest during the second quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Ancora Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in ArcBest during the first quarter valued at approximately $56,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in shares of ArcBest during the 2nd quarter valued at $58,000. Finally, West Tower Group LLC purchased a new position in ArcBest during the second quarter valued at $59,000. 99.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

ArcBest Trading Up 3.9 %

ARCB traded up $5.33 on Thursday, hitting $142.50. The company had a trading volume of 508,315 shares, compared to its average volume of 289,282. ArcBest Co. has a 12-month low of $82.18 and a 12-month high of $149.89. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $134.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $118.76. The company has a market cap of $3.35 billion, a PE ratio of 18.02, a PEG ratio of 0.57 and a beta of 1.49.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The transportation company reported $2.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.09 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. ArcBest had a return on equity of 15.91% and a net margin of 4.41%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.45 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that ArcBest Co. will post 10.15 EPS for the current year.

ArcBest Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 16th were paid a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. ArcBest’s payout ratio is currently 6.07%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on ARCB. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on ArcBest from $153.00 to $159.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on ArcBest from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. UBS Group boosted their price target on ArcBest from $119.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on shares of ArcBest in a report on Monday, March 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $168.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of ArcBest in a report on Monday, January 29th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $148.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $146.69.

Insider Buying and Selling at ArcBest

In related news, insider Erin K. Gattis sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.58, for a total transaction of $283,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 32,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,565,530.26. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.65% 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.