UPDATE: Bank of America Downgrades Arkansas Best to Neutral
Bank of America lowers its rating on Arkansas Best (NASDAQ: ABFS) to Neutral from Buy and lowers its price objective by $5 to $20 as the company's quarterly results disappoint on greater declines on volume than expected.
Bank of America says, "Arkansas Best's disappointing 4Q results and uncertain management outlook gives us less confidence that it will be able to leverage its fixed cost network to generate attractive earnings growth in 2012. We believe accelerating year-over-year volume declines (-8.3% in 4Q11 vs. -2.9% in 3Q11) is likely due to market share loss given that domestic manufacturing continues to show signs of recovery. ... We believe the stock, down 16% intraday, is likely to remain range-bound as the company works through these issues."
ABFS closed at $19.13 a share on Friday.
