J.B. Hunt Re-Elects 10 Board Members

At their annual meeting Thursday, shareholders of J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. re-elected 10 members of its board of directors.

The board’s directors serve one-year terms.

About 100 people attended the 20-minute meeting at the company’s corporate office in Lowell, including Johnelle Hunt, widow of company founder J.B. Hunt. A principal stockholder, Johnelle Hunt owns 17.5 percent of the company’s common stock.

The other principal stockholders are Wellington Management Co. of Boston, which owns 6.9 percent, and BlackRock Inc. of New York, which owns 5 percent.

Shareholders also approved an amendment to the company’s management incentive plan. The amendment requires the compensation committee to establish performance goals for the executive in writing, and the goals must be based on an objective formula or standard.

Before vesting the compensation awards, the committee must certify in writing that all of the required performance goals have been met.

In other business, shareholders ratified the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company’s independent accounting firm for 2012.

After the business portion of the meeting, John Roberts, J.B. Hunt’s president and CEO, went over some highlights of the company’s performance in the past year.

These included record profit and revenue for each quarter and the full year, and improved margins in all four of the company’s operating segments.

Earlier this month, the company reported first-quarter earnings of $67.68 million, or 57 cents per share, compared to $50.1 million, or 40 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 17 percent to $1.17 billion.