XPO (NYSE:XPO) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• XPO shares surged after Stifel Nicolaus upgraded the stock's price target from $135 to $145, triggering a gap up in share price at the market opening.
• Other analysts have also raised their price targets for XPO, with Oppenheimer now targeting $150, while Bank of America increased theirs to $150 as well, reflecting overall strong sentiment with eighteen buy ratings.
• XPO announced a $750 million stock repurchase program, suggesting that company leadership believes the stock is undervalued.
• The company reported earnings of $0.73 per share for the last quarter, surpassing expectations, although revenue for the period decreased by 3.2% year-over-year.

XPO, Inc. (NYSE:XPO - Get Free Report)'s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Friday after Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on the stock from $135.00 to $145.00. The stock had previously closed at $135.69, but opened at $141.57. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. XPO shares last traded at $136.32, with a volume of 60,568 shares.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on XPO. Oppenheimer upped their price target on XPO from $126.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on XPO from $136.00 to $133.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Bank of America upped their price target on XPO from $139.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Truist Financial upped their price target on XPO from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on XPO from $116.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, XPO presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $141.16.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On XPO

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in XPO. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in XPO by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 7,224 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $947,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares during the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in XPO in the fourth quarter valued at $3,108,000. LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in XPO by 57.3% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 74,250 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $9,738,000 after purchasing an additional 27,034 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in XPO by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,034,926 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $1,447,231,000 after purchasing an additional 79,393 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp purchased a new stake in XPO in the fourth quarter valued at $83,000. 97.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

XPO Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The company has a market capitalization of $16.11 billion, a PE ratio of 42.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.93. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $124.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $120.62.

XPO (NYSE:XPO - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The transportation company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.08. XPO had a net margin of 4.87% and a return on equity of 28.27%. The business had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.98 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.81 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that XPO, Inc. will post 4.15 EPS for the current year.

XPO announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, March 27th that permits the company to buyback $750.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the transportation company to purchase up to 5.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

XPO Company Profile

XPO, Inc provides freight transportation services in the United States, rest of North America, France, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, North American LTL and European Transportation. The North American LTL segment provides customers with less-than-truckload (LTL) services, such as geographic density and day-definite domestic services.

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