J.B. Hunt Transport Services (JBHT) PT Raised to $216 at UBS As Volumes Track Better Than Expected

UBS analyst Thomas Wadewitz raised the price target on J.B. Hunt Transport Services (NASDAQ: JBHT) to $216.00 (from $196.00) while maintaining a Neutral rating.

The analyst commented, "Despite a headwind from weather in January, domestic intermodal industry volume appears to be tracking better than we anticipated. Based on container import and rail volume data, we estimate that domestic intermodal volume grew 2.7% y/y in March, which follows 5.2% growth in February and a 2.5% y/y decline in January. This would result in industry volume growing 1.7% y/y for 1Q. Extrapolating industry intermodal volume to JBHT points to a -0.4% y/y decline in 1Q, which is better than our prior estimate of -1.8%. We still forecast a y/y decline in intermodal revenue per load in 1Q (-0.7%) for JBHT but stronger volume drives better OR performance of 91.8% vs. our prior estimate of 92.1%. Worse margin performance in DCS and ICS is an offset, but the changes in intermodal are enough to raise our 1Q EPS estimate from $1.43 to $1.45."

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