Cowen analyst Jason Seidl upgraded Hub Group (HUBG) to Outperform from Market Perform, noting that while some major freight demand indexes have been down for four straight months, looking at the first half of 2019 in a vacuum "would be a mistake" given weather, tariff impacts, and historically tough comps. The analyst, who contends that the issue isn't necessarily that 2019 has been so bad but that 2018 "was just really, really good," does not see a freight recession occurring. He also upgraded ArcBest (ARCB) and Covenant Transportation (CVTI) to Outperform, as previously reported, citing the same rationale and noting that all three stocks are trading below their historical multiples. The analyst has a $40 price target on ArcBest, a $23 target on Covenant and a $53 price target on Hub Group.