Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $44.50.

A number of research firms have recently commented on WERN. Barclays lowered shares of Werner Enterprises from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $49.00 price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Werner Enterprises from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. Susquehanna dropped their target price on shares of Werner Enterprises from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Werner Enterprises from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WERN. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Werner Enterprises by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,420,141 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $272,021,000 after buying an additional 565,193 shares in the last quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. raised its position in Werner Enterprises by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 4,518,370 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $205,541,000 after buying an additional 54,392 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Werner Enterprises by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,973,767 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $168,369,000 after buying an additional 282,210 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Werner Enterprises by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,811,218 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $161,484,000 after buying an additional 33,906 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in Werner Enterprises by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,409,733 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $98,799,000 after buying an additional 79,912 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.32% of the company’s stock.

Werner Enterprises Trading Down 0.1 %

WERN opened at $38.09 on Tuesday. Werner Enterprises has a fifty-two week low of $35.02 and a fifty-two week high of $47.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.64, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.78. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $39.34 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $39.48.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The transportation company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.05). Werner Enterprises had a return on equity of 8.17% and a net margin of 3.42%. The business had revenue of $821.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $820.90 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.99 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Werner Enterprises will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Werner Enterprises Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. Werner Enterprises’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.82%.

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.