J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.45 Per Share

J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, February 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.45 per share by the transportation company on Friday, February 20th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 6th. This is a 2.3% increase from J.B. Hunt Transport Services’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services has increased its dividend by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 22 consecutive years. J.B. Hunt Transport Services has a dividend payout ratio of 25.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect J.B. Hunt Transport Services to earn $7.99 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.76 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 22.0%.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Price Performance

NASDAQ JBHT opened at $211.56 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $191.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $163.34. J.B. Hunt Transport Services has a 52 week low of $122.79 and a 52 week high of $212.00. The stock has a market cap of $20.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services (NASDAQ:JBHT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 15th. The transportation company reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.81 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. J.B. Hunt Transport Services had a return on equity of 16.33% and a net margin of 4.99%.The business’s revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.53 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that J.B. Hunt Transport Services will post 6.37 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

JBHT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services from $169.00 to $187.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating on shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services in a research report on Friday, January 16th. Raymond James Financial upped their price target on shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Barclays boosted their target price on J.B. Hunt Transport Services from $150.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Susquehanna upgraded J.B. Hunt Transport Services from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $160.00 to $240.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.05.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Company Profile

J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc is a leading provider of transportation and logistics solutions headquartered in Lowell, Arkansas. The company offers a comprehensive suite of services designed to move freight efficiently across North America, including intermodal, dedicated contract services, full truckload, less-than-truckload (LTL), final mile delivery and specialized transport.

In its intermodal segment, J.B. Hunt leverages a network of rail and truck assets to transport containers and trailers on major U.S.