Traders Buy Large Volume of Expeditors International of Washington Put Options (NASDAQ:EXPD)

Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPD) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders acquired 2,521 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 810% compared to the typical daily volume of 277 put options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Blake R. Bell sold 4,100 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.99, for a total transaction of $479,659.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 52,745 shares in the company, valued at $6,170,637.55. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Expeditors International of Washington news, insider Blake R. Bell sold 4,100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.99, for a total transaction of $479,659.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 52,745 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,170,637.55. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Mark A. Emmert sold 8,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.67, for a total value of $1,001,727.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 14,085 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,741,891.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Boston Partners grew its holdings in shares of Expeditors International of Washington by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,936,736 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $356,923,000 after purchasing an additional 67,800 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Expeditors International of Washington by 0.3% during the first quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 2,695,027 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $327,634,000 after buying an additional 8,282 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Expeditors International of Washington by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,622,758 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $333,615,000 after buying an additional 115,978 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Expeditors International of Washington by 5.3% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,923,792 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $220,524,000 after buying an additional 96,787 shares during the period. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Expeditors International of Washington by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,609,789 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $204,765,000 after acquiring an additional 20,272 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EXPD has been the subject of several recent research reports. Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of Expeditors International of Washington from $112.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Expeditors International of Washington from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 28th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Expeditors International of Washington from $112.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 23rd. Bank of America lifted their price target on Expeditors International of Washington from $126.00 to $131.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on Expeditors International of Washington from $111.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.44.

Expeditors International of Washington Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ EXPD opened at $123.85 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $120.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $121.88. Expeditors International of Washington has a twelve month low of $107.03 and a twelve month high of $131.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.24, a P/E/G ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 0.98.

Expeditors International of Washington (NASDAQ:EXPD) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The transportation company reported $1.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.07. Expeditors International of Washington had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 28.89%. The business had revenue of $2.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.22 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.45 earnings per share. Expeditors International of Washington’s quarterly revenue was down 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Expeditors International of Washington will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Expeditors International of Washington Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.73 per share. This is an increase from Expeditors International of Washington’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.69. This represents a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 3rd. Expeditors International of Washington’s payout ratio is currently 30.93%.

Expeditors International of Washington Company Profile

Expeditors International of Washington, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides logistics services worldwide. The company offers airfreight services, such as air freight consolidation and forwarding; ocean freight and ocean services, including ocean freight consolidation, direct ocean forwarding, and order management; customs brokerage, import, intra-continental ground transportation and delivery, and warehousing and distribution services; and customs clearance, purchase order management, vendor consolidation, time-definite transportation services, temperature-controlled transit, cargo insurance, specialized cargo monitoring and tracking, and other supply chain solutions.