Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) Receives $38.08 Average Target Price from Brokerages

Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the twelve research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $38.25.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on WERN shares. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Werner Enterprises from $39.00 to $33.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Werner Enterprises from $32.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Werner Enterprises from $57.00 to $56.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 8th. UBS Group downgraded Werner Enterprises from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $39.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Stephens lowered their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Werner Enterprises by 9.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,420,141 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $272,021,000 after purchasing an additional 565,193 shares during the last quarter. Nuance Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Werner Enterprises by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 3,167,616 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $113,496,000 after acquiring an additional 219,074 shares during the period. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Werner Enterprises by 37.1% during the 2nd quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 1,665,309 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $59,668,000 after acquiring an additional 450,522 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Werner Enterprises by 15.5% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,506,663 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $53,984,000 after acquiring an additional 201,843 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in Werner Enterprises by 2.7% in the second quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,460,342 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $52,324,000 after purchasing an additional 38,544 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.32% of the company’s stock.

Werner Enterprises Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WERN opened at $36.11 on Tuesday. Werner Enterprises has a 52 week low of $33.12 and a 52 week high of $43.26. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $37.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.88. The company has a market cap of $2.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.56, a PEG ratio of 7.51 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The transportation company reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.03). Werner Enterprises had a net margin of 1.99% and a return on equity of 4.70%. The business had revenue of $760.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $769.81 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.52 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Werner Enterprises will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Werner Enterprises Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 7th will be paid a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, October 7th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.55%. Werner Enterprises’s payout ratio is currently 42.75%.

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.