First Trust Advisors LP Purchases 1,789,653 Shares of Werner Enterprises, Inc. $WERN

First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) by 1,361.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,921,152 shares of the transportation company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,789,653 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Werner Enterprises were worth $56,501,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Werner Enterprises by 41.3% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,324 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 679 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Werner Enterprises by 49.0% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,429 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $73,000 after acquiring an additional 799 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd lifted its position in Werner Enterprises by 28.3% during the 4th quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 3,261 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $98,000 after acquiring an additional 719 shares during the period. KBC Group NV lifted its position in Werner Enterprises by 86.9% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,614 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $108,000 after acquiring an additional 1,680 shares during the period. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA bought a new stake in Werner Enterprises during the fourth quarter worth about $217,000. Institutional investors own 89.32% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WERN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $39.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Werner Enterprises from $36.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Werner Enterprises from $47.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 6th. UBS Group upped their price target on Werner Enterprises from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on Werner Enterprises from $31.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Werner Enterprises presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.62.

Werner Enterprises Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WERN opened at $42.42 on Monday. Werner Enterprises, Inc. has a twelve month low of $23.06 and a twelve month high of $47.49. The firm has a market cap of $2.54 billion, a P/E ratio of -282.80, a PEG ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a 50 day moving average of $42.67 and a 200 day moving average of $36.30. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The transportation company reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.05. Werner Enterprises had a positive return on equity of 0.66% and a negative net margin of 0.28%.The business had revenue of $730.14 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $812.50 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.12) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Werner Enterprises, Inc. will post 1.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Werner Enterprises Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 22nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 6th were issued a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 6th. Werner Enterprises’s dividend payout ratio is presently -373.33%.

About Werner Enterprises

Werner Enterprises, Inc, founded in 1956 by Clarence L. “Chris” Werner, is a leading transportation and logistics provider based in Omaha, Nebraska. The company began as a one‐truck operation and has since grown into one of North America’s largest carriers, offering an array of services to support diverse supply chains.

Werner’s core business activities include full truckload dry van services, dedicated contract carriage, intermodal transport and brokerage solutions. The company also provides value-added services such as warehousing, freight management and fleet maintenance through its network of terminals and service centers.