BlackRock Fund Advisors recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Industrials company by 3.95% to 6.85 million shares with purchase of 0.26 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 10.80% valued currently at $290.16 million. In addition, The Vanguard Group, Inc. raised its holdings by 0.68 million to 6.42 million shares. And Macquarie Investment Management B has lifted its position by 0.02% or 819.0 shares – to 4.48 million shares.
With over 0.48 million Werner Enterprises, Inc. (WERN) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $40.19 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $19.27 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -7.23% and its price on 01/12/24 lost nearly -0.25%. Currently, there are 63.22M common shares owned by the public and among those 62.46M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 17 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for WERN have a consensus price objective of $43.88. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $60.00 and a low of $36.00. The average price target is 8.41% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -11.64% over that period. But an upside of 33.02% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $45.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 69 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 26 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 217,207 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 43 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 87,413 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Werner Enterprises, Inc. are Victory Sycamore Small Company Op, iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF, and Delaware Small Cap Core Fund. Victory Sycamore Small Company Op owns 2.29 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $97.03 million. The company bought an additional 80000.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.61% of the shares outstanding. iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF bought 1740.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 1.93 million shares valued at over $81.61 million and representing 3.04% of the shares outstanding. Delaware Small Cap Core Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.83% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ: WERN) opened at $40.84, up $0.55 from a prior closing price of $40.29. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -1.40% and 2.66% over the past three months. WERN shares are trading -5.15% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -7.46% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $35.02 and touched a high of $50.31 over the same period. WERN has an average intraday trading volume of 586.76K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -3.57%, 0.70%, and -5.01% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ: WERN) shares accounts for 86.12% of the company’s 63.22M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 37.08%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 55.37% and 32.01% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $2.55B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.80. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 17.18, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $2.34. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.97% over the week and 2.19% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Werner Enterprises, Inc. (WERN) will achieve an EPS of $0.45 for the current quarter, $0.43 for the next quarter and $2.4 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.39 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.6. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.99 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -46.06%, and 16.71% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of -2.85% over the next five years, compared to 5.94% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 17 brokerage firm advisors rate Werner Enterprises, Inc. (WERN) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.35. Specifically, 6 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 7 of the 17 advise that investors “hold,” and 1 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the WERN, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. BofA Securities stated their Underperform rating for the stock in a research note on October 19, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $47-$37.
