The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Sells 39,996 Shares of Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lessened its position in Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) by 53.9% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 34,243 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 39,996 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Werner Enterprises were worth $1,227,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Werner Enterprises by 34.9% in the 1st quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 327,948 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $12,829,000 after acquiring an additional 84,800 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA lifted its holdings 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 worth $11,951,000 after acquiring an additional 39,445 shares during the last quarter. Norden Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Werner Enterprises by 1,048.4% in the 1st quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 91,312 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $3,572,000 after acquiring an additional 83,361 shares during the last quarter. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Werner Enterprises by 19.1% in the 4th quarter. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. now owns 252,823 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $10,712,000 after acquiring an additional 40,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Werner Enterprises by 65.5% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 879,371 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $31,455,000 after acquiring an additional 348,154 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Werner Enterprises from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. UBS Group lowered shares of Werner Enterprises from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $39.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $38.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $37.00 to $33.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “negative” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $37.57.

Werner Enterprises Stock Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ:WERN opened at $36.33 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.70, a PEG ratio of 7.87 and a beta of 0.79. Werner Enterprises, Inc. has a 1-year low of $33.12 and a 1-year high of $43.26. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $36.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.69 and a quick ratio of 1.64.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The transportation company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $760.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $769.81 million. Werner Enterprises had a return on equity of 4.70% and a net margin of 1.99%. The firm’s revenue was down 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.52 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Werner Enterprises, Inc. will post 0.88 EPS for the current year.

Werner Enterprises Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 7th will be paid a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 7th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Werner Enterprises’s payout ratio is currently 56.57%.

About Werner Enterprises

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.