Nuance Investments LLC Buys 776,277 Shares of Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN)

Nuance Investments LLC lifted its stake in Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) by 24.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,943,893 shares of the transportation company’s stock after purchasing an additional 776,277 shares during the period. Werner Enterprises makes up 5.1% of Nuance Investments LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Nuance Investments LLC owned 0.06% of Werner Enterprises worth $152,195,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. increased its holdings in Werner Enterprises by 37.1% in the second quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 1,665,309 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $59,668,000 after buying an additional 450,522 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Werner Enterprises by 65.5% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 879,371 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $31,455,000 after buying an additional 348,154 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Werner Enterprises by 15.5% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,506,663 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $53,984,000 after acquiring an additional 201,843 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board purchased a new position in Werner Enterprises during the 2nd quarter valued at about $5,000,000. Finally, abrdn plc raised its position in Werner Enterprises by 26.9% during the third quarter. abrdn plc now owns 497,430 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $19,196,000 after acquiring an additional 105,488 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.32% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on WERN. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $35.00 to $32.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Werner Enterprises from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Werner Enterprises from $55.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Werner Enterprises from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Werner Enterprises from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Werner Enterprises has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.57.

Werner Enterprises Trading Down 0.9 %

NASDAQ WERN opened at $39.24 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a current ratio of 1.53. Werner Enterprises, Inc. has a one year low of $33.12 and a one year high of $43.26. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $37.87 and its 200 day moving average price is $37.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.75, a PEG ratio of 33.51 and a beta of 0.80.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The transportation company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.21 by ($0.06). Werner Enterprises had a net margin of 1.48% and a return on equity of 3.58%. The business had revenue of $745.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $765.24 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Werner Enterprises, Inc. will post 0.69 EPS for the current year.

Werner Enterprises Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be given a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 2nd. Werner Enterprises’s payout ratio is 76.71%.

Werner Enterprises Company 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.