New York State Common Retirement Fund Has $7.91 Million Position in Werner Enterprises, Inc. $WERN

New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its position in Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) by 13.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 289,270 shares of the transportation company’s stock after purchasing an additional 33,361 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.47% of Werner Enterprises worth $7,914,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. US Bancorp DE increased its position in shares of Werner Enterprises by 389.0% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 9,584 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $281,000 after buying an additional 7,624 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in Werner Enterprises by 15.9% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,937 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $86,000 after acquiring an additional 402 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Werner Enterprises by 1.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,813,038 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $199,622,000 after acquiring an additional 82,581 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Werner Enterprises by 21.2% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 853,258 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $25,000,000 after purchasing an additional 149,087 shares during the period. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Werner Enterprises by 74.0% during the 1st quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 131,597 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $3,856,000 after purchasing an additional 55,965 shares in the last quarter. 89.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on WERN shares. Bank of America lowered their target price on Werner Enterprises from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $24.00 to $23.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 31st. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Werner Enterprises from $27.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Werner Enterprises from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and seven have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $26.93.

Werner Enterprises Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WERN opened at $29.57 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a current ratio of 1.62. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $26.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $27.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.77 billion, a PE ratio of 72.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 13.92 and a beta of 1.08. Werner Enterprises, Inc. has a 52 week low of $23.02 and a 52 week high of $40.16.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The transportation company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.18). The company had revenue of $712.04 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $763.63 million. Werner Enterprises had a return on equity of 0.14% and a net margin of 0.85%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.15 EPS. Analysts predict that Werner Enterprises, Inc. will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Werner Enterprises announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Monday, August 11th that permits the company to repurchase 5,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the transportation company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Werner Enterprises Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, January 5th will be paid a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, January 5th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. Werner Enterprises’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 136.59%.

Werner Enterprises 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.