Aventail Capital Group LP Takes $7.17 Million Position in J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. $JBHT

Aventail Capital Group LP acquired a new stake in shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 36,898 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,171,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in JBHT. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services by 411.5% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,799,843 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $258,457,000 after purchasing an additional 1,447,993 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services during the fourth quarter valued at about $200,587,000. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services by 75,567.4% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,006,377 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $195,580,000 after purchasing an additional 1,005,047 shares during the period. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its holdings in shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services by 338.0% during the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 823,089 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $110,434,000 after purchasing an additional 635,172 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services by 18.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,672,060 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $358,510,000 after purchasing an additional 416,167 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.95% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other J.B. Hunt Transport Services news, EVP Darren P. Field sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $254.49, for a total value of $1,017,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 8,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,213,045.04. This represents a 31.51% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Bradley W. Hicks sold 7,644 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $261.91, for a total transaction of $2,002,040.04. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 23,982 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,281,125.62. The trade was a 24.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 18,119 shares of company stock worth $4,736,095 in the last ninety days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Trading Down 4.5%

NASDAQ:JBHT opened at $267.24 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $256.66 and a 200-day moving average of $225.02. The company has a market cap of $25.20 billion, a PE ratio of 41.37, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.30. J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. has a one year low of $130.12 and a one year high of $293.54.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services (NASDAQ:JBHT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 15th. The transportation company reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $3.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. J.B. Hunt Transport Services had a net margin of 5.13% and a return on equity of 17.30%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. will post 7.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 8th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 8th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. J.B. Hunt Transport Services’s payout ratio is presently 27.86%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

JBHT has been the topic of several research reports. Benchmark upped their price objective on shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, June 7th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services from $209.00 to $228.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services from $250.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services from $228.00 to $236.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $236.17.

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.