J.B. Hunt price target raised to $174 from $162 at Stifel

Stifel raised the firm’s price target on J.B. Hunt to $174 from $162 and keeps a Hold rating on the shares. It was “a challenging quarter for bellwether J.B. Hunt,” as revenue underperformed expectations in each of the company’s operating units, the analyst tells investors. However, volume declines moderated through the quarter in the company’s core Intermodal segment and the company noted that back half comps ease significantly, which means that the sequential ramp into Q3 “could be stronger than normal,” added the analyst, who feels “more comfortable that expectations are appropriately reset into the end of the year, even if a recovery is more protracted and lackluster than normal.”