Fmr LLC Grows Stake in Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN)

Fmr LLC raised its stake in shares of Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) by 171.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 11,743 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 7,422 shares during the quarter. Fmr LLC’s holdings in Werner Enterprises were worth $453,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WERN. Quantbot Technologies LP raised its holdings in Werner Enterprises by 431.1% during the 3rd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 20,049 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $774,000 after buying an additional 16,274 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Werner Enterprises by 6.8% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 680,673 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $26,267,000 after acquiring an additional 43,074 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Werner Enterprises in the 3rd quarter worth about $630,000. Nuance Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Werner Enterprises by 24.5% during the 3rd quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 3,943,893 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $152,195,000 after purchasing an additional 776,277 shares during the period. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in Werner Enterprises during the 3rd quarter valued at about $378,000. 89.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on WERN. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $55.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Werner Enterprises from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Werner Enterprises from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Werner Enterprises from $37.00 to $33.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of Werner Enterprises from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a “negative” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.57.

Werner Enterprises Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ WERN opened at $36.37 on Friday. Werner Enterprises, Inc. has a 12-month low of $33.12 and a 12-month high of $43.26. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $38.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.25 billion, a PE ratio of 49.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 33.43 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The transportation company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $745.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $765.24 million. Werner Enterprises had a net margin of 1.48% and a return on equity of 3.58%. The company’s revenue was down 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.42 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Werner Enterprises, Inc. will post 0.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Werner Enterprises Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 2nd. Werner Enterprises’s dividend payout ratio is presently 76.71%.

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.