Royce & Associates LP Invests $4.08 Million in Werner Enterprises, Inc. $WERN

Royce & Associates LP acquired a new position in shares of Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 136,000 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,081,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Werner Enterprises by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,514,200 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $195,491,000 after buying an additional 90,480 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Werner Enterprises by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,791,148 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $99,782,000 after buying an additional 24,204 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Werner Enterprises by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,058,938 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $80,511,000 after buying an additional 165,233 shares during the last quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. lifted its position in shares of Werner Enterprises by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 2,750,034 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $82,529,000 after buying an additional 120,343 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in Werner Enterprises by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,404,508 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $63,287,000 after purchasing an additional 123,513 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $31.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Werner Enterprises from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $36.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $35.15.

Werner Enterprises Trading Down 0.0%

NASDAQ WERN opened at $41.51 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a current ratio of 1.46. The firm has a market cap of $2.49 billion, a PE ratio of -276.73, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.24. Werner Enterprises, Inc. has a one year low of $23.06 and a one year high of $42.01. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $33.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $31.95.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The transportation company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $0.05. The company had revenue of $730.14 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $812.50 million. Werner Enterprises had a negative net margin of 0.28% and a positive return on equity of 0.66%. Werner Enterprises’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.12) earnings per share. Analysts expect that Werner Enterprises, Inc. will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Werner Enterprises Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 6th will be given a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 6th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. Werner Enterprises’s dividend payout ratio is presently -373.33%.

Werner Enterprises Company Profile

Werner Enterprises, Inc, founded in 1956 by Clarence L. “Chris” Werner, is a leading transportation and logistics provider based in Omaha, Nebraska. The company began as a one‐truck operation and has since grown into one of North America’s largest carriers, offering an array of services to support diverse supply chains.

Werner’s core business activities include full truckload dry van services, dedicated contract carriage, intermodal transport and brokerage solutions. The company also provides value-added services such as warehousing, freight management and fleet maintenance through its network of terminals and service centers.