For those looking to find strong Transportation stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has ArcBest (ARCB) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.
ArcBest is a member of our Transportation group, which includes 110 different companies and currently sits at #3 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst.
The Zacks Rank is a proven model that highlights a variety of stocks with the right characteristics to outperform the market over the next one to three months. The system emphasizes earnings estimate revisions and favors companies with improving earnings outlooks. ArcBest is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ARCB's full-year earnings has moved 23.8% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.
Based on the most recent data, ARCB has returned 91.9% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Transportation group have gained about 16.2% on average. As we can see, ArcBest is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.
Another Transportation stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is JB Hunt (JBHT). The stock has returned 42.9% year-to-date.
Over the past three months, JB Hunt's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 1.1%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
To break things down more, ArcBest belongs to the Transportation - Truck industry, a group that includes 12 individual companies and currently sits at #31 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 41.8% this year, meaning that ARCB is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. JB Hunt is also part of the same industry.
Going forward, investors interested in Transportation stocks should continue to pay close attention to ArcBest and JB Hunt as they could maintain their solid performance.
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ArcBest Corporation (ARCB): Free Stock Analysis Report
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).