Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Makes New Investment in Werner Enterprises, Inc. $WERN

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 26,600 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $782,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WERN. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Werner Enterprises by 605.3% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,510,354 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $75,336,000 after purchasing an additional 2,154,428 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Werner Enterprises by 539.7% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,670,737 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $50,139,000 after purchasing an additional 1,409,556 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Werner Enterprises during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,201,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in Werner Enterprises by 572.4% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,297,054 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $38,925,000 after purchasing an additional 1,104,160 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. acquired a new position in Werner Enterprises during the fourth quarter worth about $23,813,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WERN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Werner Enterprises from $47.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Evercore upgraded shares of Werner Enterprises from an “underperform” rating to an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Werner Enterprises from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Weiss Ratings raised Werner Enterprises from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $30.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $39.15.

Werner Enterprises Stock Down 0.3%

WERN traded down $0.12 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $42.88. The company had a trading volume of 25,175 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,135,216. Werner Enterprises, Inc. has a 1-year low of $23.06 and a 1-year high of $45.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.43. The business has a 50-day moving average of $40.13 and a 200-day moving average of $34.91. The company has a market cap of $2.57 billion, a PE ratio of -285.83, a P/E/G ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 1.26.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The transportation company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.05. Werner Enterprises had a negative net margin of 0.28% and a positive return on equity of 0.66%. The company had revenue of $730.14 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $812.50 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.12) earnings per share. Werner Enterprises’s revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Werner Enterprises, Inc. will post 0.94 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, July 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 6th will be issued a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 6th. Werner Enterprises’s dividend payout ratio is presently -373.33%.

About Werner Enterprises

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.