Hills Bank & Trust Co Makes New $106,000 Investment in Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN)

Hills Bank & Trust Co acquired a new stake in Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 2,500 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $106,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in Werner Enterprises by 139.9% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 703 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 410 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Werner Enterprises during the third quarter worth approximately $36,000. Planned Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in Werner Enterprises in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $57,000. Strs Ohio increased its stake in Werner Enterprises by 35.3% in the third quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 2,300 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its stake in Werner Enterprises by 46.5% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 2,402 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $94,000 after purchasing an additional 762 shares during the last quarter. 89.32% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WERN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Werner Enterprises from $39.00 to $35.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of Werner Enterprises from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Werner Enterprises from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $37.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Werner Enterprises from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $40.83.

Werner Enterprises Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WERN traded up $0.13 during trading on Thursday, hitting $36.99. 680,384 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 641,788. Werner Enterprises, Inc. has a 12-month low of $33.12 and a 12-month high of $47.27. The company has a market cap of $2.35 billion, a PE ratio of 28.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $37.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $39.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The transportation company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.14). The firm had revenue of $769.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $788.30 million. Werner Enterprises had a net margin of 2.59% and a return on equity of 6.15%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Werner Enterprises, Inc. will post 1.52 EPS for the current year.

Werner Enterprises Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th were given a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 12th. Werner Enterprises’s payout ratio is currently 42.75%.

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.