Arkansas Best Gets Upgrade

Investment firm Credit Suisse First Boston upgraded stock of Arkansas Best Corp. on Sept. 22 from “neutral” to “outperform.”r

The firm cited better-than-expected yields in the company’s core less-than-truckload operations and improved leverage in the market due to the pending merger between Yellow Corp. and Roadway Corp. as factors in the upgrade.r

“The drivers we expect will be stronger tonnage and yield growth driven by an improving U.S. economy and increasing price discipline,” CSFB analyst Gary Yablon said in a prepared statement.r

Yablon said CSFB believed that Arkansas Best had been “doing a poor job on the cost front” until recently.r

“The operating ratio at ABF was not improving year to year as much as we had expected considering what have been strong revenue gains [especially in the second quarter of 2003],”Yablon said. “We expect that it will begin to show improvement from the third quarter 2003 and beyond.”r

Yablon credited the improving economy to the heightened positive forecast.