Arkansas Business

All 11 members of the board of directors at J.B. Hunt Transports Service Inc. were reappointed during an annual meeting of shareholders Thursday in Lowell.

Douglas G. Duncan, Francesca M. Edwardson, Wayne Garrison, Sharilyn S. Gasaway, Gary C. George, Bryan Hunt, Coleman H. Peterson, John N. Roberts III, James L. Robo, Kirk Thompson and John A. White each received at least 87 percent of stockholder votes to serve an additional one-year term.

The meeting, which included an overview of 2012 by CEO Roberts, lasted less than 15 minutes.

"We definitely saw a good year in 12," Roberts told about 100 shareholders who attended.

Roberts shared 2012 highlights that included:

• Record revenue of $5.1 billion. Broken down, 60 percent of the revenue came from intermodal operations, 21 percent came from dedicated contract services, 10 percent from trucking and 9 percent from the integrated capacity solutions segment of business.
• That the company added 1,337 jobs, and J.B. Hunt employed 18,500 people.
• Return on investment capital reached a new record, 22.7 percent.

Roberts also outlined objectives for 2013.

Goals for the firm's intermodal segment include 10-15 percent load growth and a 1 percent increase on revenue per load. For dedicated contract services, Roberts said growing the top line by 10-15 percent is the aim.

Goals for integrated capacity solutions include adding 10 branch locations and expanding load growth by 15-20 percent. For the truckload portion of the business, Roberts said the company must maintain the fleet size of 2,200 power units and improve utilization to between 4 and 5 percent.

"Our work right now in truck is to see it stabilize," Roberts said, "and the other three are clearly on a path of growth."

J.B. Hunt also announced that its quarterly dividends would be 15 cents per share on stock. Dividends will be paid on May 24.

Shareholders also ratified the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's accounting firm for 2013.