J.B. Hunt Splits, Upgraded by Analysts

For the first time in more than a decade, the board at J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. declared that shares of the company’s common stock will split 2-for-1. The split will be payable August 29 to shareholders of record on July 31. The Lowell-based truckload carrier declined to comment following its July 17 announcement.

The firm, which hasn’t seen its stock split since 1992, has annual revenues of more than $2 billion with more than 11,000 trucks and 40,000 trailers and containers in its fleet.

Less than a month earlier, Morgan Stanley Investments of New York upgraded J.B. Hunt’s stock from “underweight” to “equal weight.” That change came less than a month after a brief downgrading of the trucking firm by Morgan Stanley.

Typically when a stock receives an “equal weight” rating it means that it is expected to perform in its peer group during the next 12 months.

Morgan Stanley’s “about face” came after J.B. Hunt released favorable second quarter earnings.

For the second quarter, J.B. Hunt earnings increased by $10 million (62 percent) from $15.5 million (40 cents per share) in 2002’s second frame to $25.1 million (62 cents per share). Total operating revenue for the recent quarter jumped 8 percent from $557 million in 2002 to $600 million.

“We are extremely pleased with the progress at delivering the profitability improvement we had anticipated and remain confident in our ability to achieve meaningful earnings growth and shareholder returns going forward,” said Kirk Thompson, the firm’s president and CEO.