Hub Group Inc. (NASDAQ: HUBG) stock jumped 6.05% on Friday to $97.45 against a previous-day closing price of $91.89. With 0.58 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 0.21 million shares. During the session, the Integrated Freight & Logistics company that operates in wider Industrials sector, reached to the highest price of $104.67 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $92.81. The 52-week range on HUBG shows that it touched its highest point at $92.45 and its lowest point at $60.81 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $101.79. Beta for the stock currently stands at 0.95.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of HUBG was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 16.58%, but this was up by 24.68% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 27.35% while six-month performance rose 22.12%. The stock gained 26.95% in the past year, while it has gained 22.59% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for HUBG yields 10.69 with Next year EPS estimates of 7.86. For the next quarter, that number is 1.88. This implies an EPS growth rate of 130.70% for this year and 2.68% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 16.50% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 24.40%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 33.15 million HUBG shares are outstanding with a float of 31.95 million shares on hand for trading. On Oct 13, 2022, short shares totaled 1.26 million, which was 3.64% higher than short shares on Sep 14, 2022. In addition to Mr. David P. Yeager as the firm’s Chairman & CEO, Mr. Phillip D. Yeager serves as its Pres & COO.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 97.79% of HUBG’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 8.91% of HUBG, in contrast to 63.56% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 34.36%. As the largest shareholder in HUBG with 16.81% of the stake, BlackRock Fund Advisors holds 5,487,886 shares worth 5,487,886. A second-largest stockholder of HUBG, The Vanguard Group, Inc., holds 3,673,476 shares, controlling over 11.25% of the firm’s shares. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP is the third largest shareholder in HUBG, holding 2,351,312 shares or 7.20% stake. With a 7.39% stake in HUBG, the iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 2,413,235 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, which owns about 2.88% of HUBG stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 941,707 shares valued at 74.86 million. Capitol Series Trust – Fuller & T holds 2.88% of the stake in HUBG, owning 939,766 shares worth 74.7 million.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for HUBG since 18 analysts follow the stock currently. There are 8 analysts who recommend BUY ratings, while 0 suggest SELL ratings. Of the remaining analysts, 8 believe that the stock is worth HOLDING, 1 give it an OVERWEIGHT rating, and 1 thinks that it’s UNDERWEIGHT. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With HUBG analysts setting a high price target of $133.00 and a low target of $86.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $102.13. Based on these targets, HUBG could surge 36.48% to reach the target high and fall by -11.75% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 4.8% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy. HUBG will report FY 2023 earnings on 02/06/2024. Analysts have provided yearly estimates in a range of $8.15 being high and $6.30 being low. For HUBG, this leads to a yearly average estimate of $7.66. The earnings surprise of a firm occurs when the actual results change from the consensus earnings estimate. Hub Group Inc. surprised analysts by $0.09 when it reported $2.42 EPS against a consensus estimate of $2.33. The surprise factor in the prior quarter was $0.14. Based on analyst estimates, the high estimate for the next quarter is $2.10 and the low estimate is $1.57. The average estimate for the next quarter is thus $1.88.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded HUBG stock several times over the past three months with 18 Buys and 11 Sells. In these transactions, 58,326 shares were bought while 11,954 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 22 while that of sell transactions has risen to 14 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 69,729 while 12,981 shares were sold.
