Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) Earns Underweight Rating from JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated their underweight rating on shares of Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat reports. They currently have a $32.00 target price on the transportation company’s stock, down from their prior target price of $36.00.

WERN has been the topic of a number of other reports. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $46.00 to $42.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Susquehanna reiterated a negative rating and issued a $27.00 price objective (down from $32.00) on shares of Werner Enterprises in a research report on Monday, June 24th. Barclays reduced their target price on Werner Enterprises from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Stephens reissued an equal weight rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Werner Enterprises in a report on Thursday, May 16th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Werner Enterprises from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $38.69.

Werner Enterprises Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WERN opened at $35.84 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a current ratio of 1.90. The company has a fifty day moving average of $36.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $38.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.27 billion, a PE ratio of 27.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.80. Werner Enterprises has a fifty-two week low of $33.12 and a fifty-two week high of $47.27.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The transportation company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $769.08 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $788.30 million. Werner Enterprises had a return on equity of 6.15% and a net margin of 2.59%. The business’s revenue was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Werner Enterprises will post 1.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Werner Enterprises Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 1st will be issued a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 1st. Werner Enterprises’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.75%.

Institutional Trading of Werner Enterprises

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WERN. Nuance Investments LLC grew its holdings in Werner Enterprises by 55.8% in the 4th quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 2,268,348 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $96,110,000 after buying an additional 812,563 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 worth $272,021,000 after purchasing an additional 565,193 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Werner Enterprises by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,973,767 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $168,369,000 after purchasing an additional 282,210 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Werner Enterprises during the 4th quarter worth about $10,302,000. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Werner Enterprises during the 4th quarter worth about $8,855,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.32% of the company’s stock.

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.