J.B. Hunt price target lowered to $175 from $195 at Benchmark

Benchmark analyst Christopher Kuhn lowered the firm’s price target on J.B. Hunt (JBHT) to $175 from $195 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. Ahead of the company’s Q1 report, the firm is “once again” reducing estimates, noting that the company does not typically give guidance, but on the fourth quarter call they called out operating income in Q1 should see a normal sequential decline of 20%-25% when adding back a charge in Q4. The firm thinks it could be at the mid-point of that range, the analyst tells investors. The firm’s pre-quarter checks indicate that shippers are pushing back more on intermodal rate increases than they are on truckload rates, the analyst added.