Capital Fund Management S.A. Invests $1.66 Million in Werner Enterprises, Inc. $WERN

Key Points

• Capital Fund Management S.A. has acquired a new stake in Werner Enterprises, Inc. valued at approximately $1.66 million, owning about 0.09% of the company as per its recent SEC filing.
• Werner Enterprises recently reported earnings, posting an EPS of $0.11, outperforming analyst expectations of $0.05, while quarterly revenue experienced a 1.0% decline compared to last year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.14, with a yield of 1.9%, and has also approved a stock repurchase program for 5 million shares, indicating management's belief that the stock is undervalued.

Capital Fund Management S.A. acquired a new position in Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 56,685 shares of the transportation company's stock, valued at approximately $1,661,000. Capital Fund Management S.A. owned about 0.09% of Werner Enterprises at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Brooklyn Investment Group lifted its position in Werner Enterprises by 163.5% during the 1st quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 959 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 595 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its position in shares of Werner Enterprises by 69.7% during the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,176 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 483 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Werner Enterprises by 15.9% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,937 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $86,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its position in shares of Werner Enterprises by 69.1% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 6,701 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $241,000 after purchasing an additional 2,738 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Crestline Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Werner Enterprises during the 4th quarter worth about $254,000. 89.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Werner Enterprises from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Werner Enterprises from a "sell" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the company from $25.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Werner Enterprises from $29.00 to $24.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Reduce" and a consensus target price of $30.50.

Werner Enterprises Price Performance

Shares of WERN traded down $0.10 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $28.73. The company had a trading volume of 565,657 shares, compared to its average volume of 849,744. Werner Enterprises, Inc. has a twelve month low of $23.02 and a twelve month high of $42.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The company's 50-day moving average is $28.15 and its 200-day moving average is $28.68. The company has a market capitalization of $1.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.08.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The transportation company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.06. Werner Enterprises had a return on equity of 0.92% and a net margin of 1.77%.The business had revenue of $753.15 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $736.09 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.17 EPS. Werner Enterprises's quarterly revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Werner Enterprises, Inc. will post 1.27 EPS for the current year.

Werner Enterprises Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, October 6th will be given a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 6th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Werner Enterprises's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.12%.

Werner Enterprises announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, August 11th that permits the company to buyback 5,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the transportation company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Werner Enterprises Profile

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.