J.B. Hunt Transport Services (NASDAQ:JBHT) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services (NASDAQ:JBHT) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Monday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services from $280.00 to $313.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $261.00 target price on shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Benchmark upped their price target on shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on J.B. Hunt Transport Services from $291.00 to $264.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, Raymond James Financial dropped their price objective on J.B. Hunt Transport Services from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, J.B. Hunt Transport Services has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $284.17.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Price Performance

J.B. Hunt Transport Services stock opened at $234.63 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $269.39 and its 200 day moving average is $256.67. J.B. Hunt Transport Services has a one year low of $130.12 and a one year high of $299.76. The firm has a market cap of $22.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.26.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services (NASDAQ:JBHT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The transportation company reported $1.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.71 by $0.20. J.B. Hunt Transport Services had a net margin of 5.31% and a return on equity of 18.75%. The business had revenue of $3.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.31 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that J.B. Hunt Transport Services will post 7.58 EPS for the current year.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 7th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 7th. J.B. Hunt Transport Services’s dividend payout ratio is 25.50%.

Institutional Trading of J.B. Hunt Transport Services

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in JBHT. QRG Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in J.B. Hunt Transport Services during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $219,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. acquired a new stake in J.B. Hunt Transport Services in the second quarter valued at approximately $262,000. Andra AP fonden grew its stake in J.B. Hunt Transport Services by 4.3% in the second quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 29,221 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $8,457,000 after acquiring an additional 1,200 shares during the period. Junto Capital Management LP increased its holdings in shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services by 9.3% during the second quarter. Junto Capital Management LP now owns 426,492 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $123,440,000 after acquiring an additional 36,149 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services by 5.3% during the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,546 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $2,184,000 after acquiring an additional 381 shares in the last quarter. 74.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Company Profile

J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc is a transportation and logistics company headquartered in Lowell, Arkansas. Through its operating segments, the company provides freight transportation, logistics and supply-chain services to customers across North America.

Its principal businesses include intermodal transportation, which combines rail and trucking; dedicated contract services, which provides customized transportation and fleet-management solutions; and integrated capacity solutions, which matches customer freight with available transportation capacity.