Morgan Stanley Raises Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) Price Target to $37.00

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) had its price objective increased by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $36.00 to $37.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the transportation company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 27.02% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on WERN. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $25.00 to $22.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 6th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Werner Enterprises from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of Werner Enterprises from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 31st. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Werner Enterprises from $27.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Werner Enterprises in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. 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 currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $26.71.

Werner Enterprises Price Performance

WERN stock opened at $29.13 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 13.90 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a quick ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Werner Enterprises has a 52-week low of $23.02 and a 52-week high of $40.16. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $26.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $27.36.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The transportation company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.18). Werner Enterprises had a net margin of 0.85% and a return on equity of 0.14%. The business had revenue of $712.04 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $763.63 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.15 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Werner Enterprises will post 1.27 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Verition Fund Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Werner Enterprises by 11.3% in the third quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 67,712 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,782,000 after buying an additional 6,857 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd purchased a new position in Werner Enterprises in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $621,000. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in Werner Enterprises by 282.1% in the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 116,151 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $3,057,000 after acquiring an additional 85,756 shares in the last quarter. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP grew its position in Werner Enterprises by 15.0% in the third quarter. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP now owns 27,292 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $718,000 after acquiring an additional 3,551 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of Werner Enterprises by 2.0% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 736,772 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $19,392,000 after purchasing an additional 14,503 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.32% of the company’s stock.

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.