QRG Capital Management Inc. Takes $225,000 Position in Werner Enterprises, Inc. $WERN

QRG Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 8,233 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $225,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of WERN. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Werner Enterprises by 1,119.4% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 12,511 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $367,000 after acquiring an additional 11,485 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of Werner Enterprises by 164.3% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 11,066 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $324,000 after acquiring an additional 6,879 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Werner Enterprises during the 1st quarter valued at about $686,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its stake in shares of Werner Enterprises by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 33,848 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $992,000 after acquiring an additional 523 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Werner Enterprises by 10.5% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,835,187 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $53,844,000 after purchasing an additional 174,341 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Susquehanna decreased their target price on Werner Enterprises from $27.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. TD Cowen cut Werner Enterprises from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $24.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Weiss Ratings cut Werner Enterprises from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Baird R W upgraded Werner Enterprises to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Werner Enterprises from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and seven have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Werner Enterprises has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $27.71.

Werner Enterprises Stock Down 6.1%

NASDAQ WERN opened at $26.53 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $1.59 billion, a PE ratio of 30.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.06. Werner Enterprises, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $23.02 and a fifty-two week high of $42.48. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $27.78 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $27.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The transportation company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $753.15 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $736.09 million. Werner Enterprises had a return on equity of 0.92% and a net margin of 1.77%.Werner Enterprises’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.17 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Werner Enterprises, Inc. will post 1.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Werner Enterprises Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 6th will be issued a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 6th. Werner Enterprises’s dividend payout ratio is currently 65.12%.

Werner Enterprises declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, August 11th that allows the company to buyback 5,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the transportation company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.