UPDATE: J.P. Morgan Upgrades Old Dominion Freight Line to Overweight on Favorable Risk-Reward Outlook

In a report published Tuesday, J.P. Morgan analyst Thomas R. Wadewitz upgraded the rating on Old Dominion Freight Line

from Neutral to Overweight, and raised the price target from $38.00 to $43.00. In the report, Wadewitz noted, “We are upgrading ODFL to Overweight as we believe the combination of a rare period of recent underperformance by ODFL stock and actions by competitors which support continued ODFL share gain provide a favorable reward to risk outlook for the stock. ODFL stock is up only 5.3% in 2013TD compared to an 8.8% rise in the S&P 500 and an 11.5% increase on average for our transport coverage universe. Following downside 4Q12 EPS, we expect ODFL to report solid 1Q results which show that it is back on track with solid margin performance. We believe ODFL's non-union competitors CNW and FedEx Freight are likely to remain more focused on margin than tonnage while union competitors ABFS and YRCW focus on capacity reductions. Against this backdrop we expect share gain and attractive growth for ODFL.” Old Dominion Freight Line closed on Monday at $36.10.