State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Has $2.72 Million Stock Position in Werner Enterprises, Inc. $WERN

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D boosted its stake in shares of Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) by 20.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 90,777 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 15,108 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Werner Enterprises were worth $2,724,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WERN. Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in Werner Enterprises by 33.8% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 21,660 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $635,000 after buying an additional 5,473 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its holdings in Werner Enterprises by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 36,697 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,075,000 after buying an additional 1,598 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its holdings in Werner Enterprises by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 126,854 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $3,717,000 after buying an additional 401 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Werner Enterprises by 24.5% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 76,767 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,100,000 after buying an additional 15,109 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Werner Enterprises by 159.6% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 226,085 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $6,186,000 after purchasing an additional 138,995 shares during the last quarter. 89.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on WERN. Zacks Research cut shares of Werner Enterprises from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Werner Enterprises from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Evercore increased their target price on shares of Werner Enterprises from $20.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Werner Enterprises from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Werner Enterprises from $34.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $35.15.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Eric J. Downing sold 1,428 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total transaction of $49,980.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 57,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,007,740. The trade was a 2.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Werner Enterprises Price Performance

Shares of WERN opened at $34.67 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $2.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -231.13, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.24. Werner Enterprises, Inc. has a 1-year low of $23.06 and a 1-year high of $38.46. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $30.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The transportation company reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $0.05. The business had revenue of $730.14 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $812.50 million. Werner Enterprises had a negative net margin of 0.28% and a positive return on equity of 0.66%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.12) earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Werner Enterprises, Inc. will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Werner Enterprises Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 6th. Investors of record on Monday, April 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 13th. Werner Enterprises’s 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.