ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.12

ArcBest Co. (NASDAQ:ARCB) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 26th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.12 per share by the transportation company on Friday, May 24th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th.

ArcBest has increased its dividend payment by an average of 14.5% per year over the last three years. ArcBest has a payout ratio of 3.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect ArcBest to earn $11.31 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 4.2%.

ArcBest Price Performance

Shares of ARCB stock opened at $117.10 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $136.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $126.32. The stock has a market cap of $2.75 billion, a PE ratio of 23.56, a PEG ratio of 0.57 and a beta of 1.56. ArcBest has a 52-week low of $82.18 and a 52-week high of $153.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.23.

ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The transportation company reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.53 by ($0.19). ArcBest had a return on equity of 15.27% and a net margin of 2.80%. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.58 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that ArcBest will post 9 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ARCB. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of ArcBest from $153.00 to $159.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of ArcBest from $143.00 to $110.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Stephens raised their price objective on ArcBest from $165.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on ArcBest from $177.00 to $148.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on ArcBest from $133.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $143.38.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Erin K. Gattis sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were 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 $4,565,530.26. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.