State Street Corp Sells 19,210 Shares of Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN)

State Street Corp cut its stake in Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,544,776 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 19,210 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp owned about 4.12% of Werner Enterprises worth $98,203,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Verition Fund Management LLC purchased a new stake in Werner Enterprises in the third quarter worth about $485,000. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Werner Enterprises in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $630,000. Empower Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Werner Enterprises by 4.8% during the third quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 362,786 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $14,000,000 after purchasing an additional 16,637 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. grew its stake in Werner Enterprises by 31.1% in the third quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 84,085 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $3,245,000 after purchasing an additional 19,944 shares during the period. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP grew its stake in Werner Enterprises by 19.8% in the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 98,550 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $3,803,000 after purchasing an additional 16,280 shares during the period. 89.32% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on WERN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Werner Enterprises from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Werner Enterprises from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Werner Enterprises from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Werner Enterprises from $35.00 to $32.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.57.

Werner Enterprises Stock Performance

WERN stock opened at $38.83 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Werner Enterprises, Inc. has a 12-month low of $33.12 and a 12-month high of $43.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.40 billion, a PE ratio of 53.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 33.43 and a beta of 0.82.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The transportation company reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by ($0.06). Werner Enterprises had a net margin of 1.48% and a return on equity of 3.58%. The business had revenue of $745.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $765.24 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.42 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Werner Enterprises, Inc. will post 0.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Werner Enterprises Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 2nd. Werner Enterprises’s payout ratio is presently 76.71%.

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.