TrueMark Investments LLC Acquires New Position in Werner Enterprises, Inc. $WERN

TrueMark Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 24,502 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $670,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of WERN. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Werner Enterprises by 1,642.2% in the first quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 620,855 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $18,191,000 after buying an additional 585,218 shares during the period. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Werner Enterprises in the first quarter valued at approximately $9,102,000. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in Werner Enterprises in the first quarter valued at approximately $6,227,000. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its stake in Werner Enterprises by 182.3% in the first quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 327,057 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $9,583,000 after purchasing an additional 211,215 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Werner Enterprises by 9.2% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,170,527 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $63,596,000 after purchasing an additional 183,340 shares in the last quarter. 89.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on WERN. Susquehanna lowered their target price on shares of Werner Enterprises from $27.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Werner Enterprises from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Werner Enterprises from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Baird R W raised shares of Werner Enterprises to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Werner Enterprises from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and seven have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $27.57.

Werner Enterprises Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of WERN stock opened at $27.84 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $27.77 and a 200-day moving average of $27.64. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. Werner Enterprises, Inc. has a 12-month low of $23.02 and a 12-month high of $42.48. The company has a market capitalization of $1.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.06.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The transportation company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.06. Werner Enterprises had a net margin of 1.77% and a return on equity of 0.92%. The company had revenue of $753.15 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $736.09 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.17 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Werner Enterprises, Inc. will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Werner Enterprises Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, October 6th will be given a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, October 6th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. Werner Enterprises’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.12%.

Werner Enterprises declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, August 11th that allows the company to repurchase 5,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the transportation company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.