Much of what we have heard about autonomous driving lately has not been good news. Anyone remember General Motors’ Cruise (GM)? But that is what makes the news out of transport firm J.B. Hunt Trucking (JBHT) so impressive. Nevertheless, the stock is down fractionally in the closing minutes of Wednesday’s trading. J.B. Hunt, working with Kodiak Robotics, recently passed a major milestone in autonomous trucking: 50,000 miles without an accident.
That is actually the equivalent of just over two times around the entire planet. It also achieved total success—100%—in both on-time pick-up and delivery figures.
Not surprisingly, this level of success has prompted J.B. Hunt to expand the autonomous line, adding new weekly deliveries along its route. The route runs from the Bridgestone (BRDCY) plant in South Carolina to the autonomous truckport near Atlanta, Georgia, and is overseen by two human safety drivers to help ensure nothing goes wrong. The route is also moving “drop freight” from Georgia to Dallas, Texas to help reduce “empty miles,” or miles in which the truck is moving but carrying nothing.
Best in Cargo Security
The news about seemingly safe and reliable autonomous transportation is great in and of itself, but it gets better when paired with a report about a new award. J.B. Hunt recently won the annual “Best in Cargo Security” award from Verisk CargoNet. Through 2023, J.B. Hunt landed a 99.99% theft-free rate.
J.B. Hunt has taken several measures to ensure its cargoes arrive successfully. A new set of analytics tools helps thwart cargo theft and carrier fraud. It also established a Security Operations Center, which works around the clock to monitor and track high-value, and therefore high-risk, freight. This should encourage others to do business with J.B. Hunt and, from there, improve its bottom line going forward.
Is J.B. Hunt a Good Stock?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on JBHT stock based on eight Buys and seven Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 17.09% loss in its share price over the past year, the average JBHT price target of $174.38 per share implies 6.67% upside potential.
