Russell Investments Group Ltd. Purchases 98,330 Shares of Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) by 44.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 317,267 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 98,330 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned approximately 0.50% of Werner Enterprises worth $13,443,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Werner Enterprises by 46.7% in the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 8,409 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $356,000 after buying an additional 2,676 shares during the last quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D boosted its stake in shares of Werner Enterprises by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 63,307 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,682,000 after buying an additional 5,527 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp purchased a new position in Werner Enterprises in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $620,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in Werner Enterprises in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $754,000. Finally, Janiczek Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Werner Enterprises by 16.9% in the fourth quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,451 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $189,000 after purchasing an additional 645 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.32% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WERN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Werner Enterprises from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Werner Enterprises from $42.00 to $39.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Werner Enterprises from $60.00 to $59.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Stephens dropped their price objective on Werner Enterprises from $42.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Werner Enterprises from $46.00 to $42.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $40.83.

Werner Enterprises Trading Up 1.6 %

Werner Enterprises stock opened at $36.31 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.72, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.82. Werner Enterprises, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.12 and a fifty-two week high of $47.27. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $37.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $39.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 1.90.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The transportation company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.14). The firm had revenue of $769.08 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $788.30 million. Werner Enterprises had a return on equity of 6.15% and a net margin of 2.59%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Werner Enterprises, Inc. will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Werner Enterprises Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th were issued a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Werner Enterprises’s payout ratio is currently 42.75%.

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.