Principal Financial Group Inc. Lowers Holdings in Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its position in shares of Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) by 6.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 291,602 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 21,487 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Werner Enterprises were worth $11,253,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nuance Investments LLC raised its holdings in Werner Enterprises by 7.4% during the second quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 3,167,616 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $113,496,000 after purchasing an additional 219,074 shares in the last quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Werner Enterprises by 37.1% in the 2nd quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 1,665,309 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $59,668,000 after buying an additional 450,522 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of Werner Enterprises by 3.9% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,516,893 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $58,537,000 after buying an additional 56,551 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in Werner Enterprises by 15.5% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,506,663 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $53,984,000 after acquiring an additional 201,843 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in Werner Enterprises by 65.5% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 879,371 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $31,455,000 after acquiring an additional 348,154 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.32% of the company’s stock.

Werner Enterprises Stock Performance

NASDAQ WERN opened at $39.62 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.49, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Werner Enterprises, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.12 and a fifty-two week high of $43.26. The business has a fifty day moving average of $37.75 and a 200-day moving average of $37.12. The stock has a market cap of $2.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 33.53 and a beta of 0.80.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The transportation company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.21 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $745.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $765.24 million. Werner Enterprises had a net margin of 1.48% and a return on equity of 3.58%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Werner Enterprises, Inc. will post 0.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WERN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Werner Enterprises from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Werner Enterprises in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. They set a “sell” rating and a $34.00 target price on the stock. 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. Stephens lowered their price target on Werner Enterprises from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Werner Enterprises from $37.00 to $33.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.57.

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.