Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Has $649,000 Stock Holdings in Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN)

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) by 12.4% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 16,588 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 2,350 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in Werner Enterprises were worth $649,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Jade Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Werner Enterprises in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,118,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Werner Enterprises by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,854,948 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $228,050,000 after buying an additional 48,380 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Werner Enterprises by 14.8% in the 1st quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA now owns 305,501 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $11,951,000 after buying an additional 39,445 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its holdings in Werner Enterprises by 35.3% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 169,187 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $7,168,000 after buying an additional 44,159 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norden Group LLC bought a new position in Werner Enterprises during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $337,000. 89.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on WERN. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Werner Enterprises in a research report on Friday, June 7th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $38.00 target price for the company. Bank of America cut their target price on Werner Enterprises from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 15th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Werner Enterprises from $42.00 to $39.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Werner Enterprises from $37.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on Werner Enterprises from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Werner Enterprises presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.25.

Werner Enterprises Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of WERN stock opened at $35.81 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Werner Enterprises, Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.12 and a 1 year high of $47.27. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.80.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The transportation company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.14). Werner Enterprises had a net margin of 2.59% and a return on equity of 6.15%. The company had revenue of $769.08 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $788.30 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Werner Enterprises, Inc. will post 1.35 EPS for the current year.

Werner Enterprises Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 1st will be given a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 1st. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Werner Enterprises’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.75%.

Werner Enterprises Company Profile

Werner Enterprises, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in transporting truckload shipments of general commodities in interstate and intrastate commerce in the United States, Mexico, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Truckload Transportation Services and Werner Logistics.