Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) Short Interest Update

Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,940,000 shares, an increase of 19.4% from the October 15th total of 3,300,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 688,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.7 days. Currently, 6.7% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Werner Enterprises

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nuance Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Werner Enterprises by 24.5% during the third quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 3,943,893 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $152,195,000 after acquiring an additional 776,277 shares during the last quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. increased its stake in Werner Enterprises by 37.1% during the 2nd quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 1,665,309 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $59,668,000 after purchasing an additional 450,522 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in shares of Werner Enterprises by 3.9% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,516,893 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $58,537,000 after buying an additional 56,551 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Werner Enterprises by 15.5% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,506,663 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $53,984,000 after buying an additional 201,843 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Werner Enterprises by 65.5% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 879,371 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $31,455,000 after buying an additional 348,154 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.32% of the company’s stock.

Werner Enterprises Trading Down 1.3 %

NASDAQ WERN opened at $40.21 on Friday. Werner Enterprises has a 12 month low of $33.12 and a 12 month high of $43.26. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $37.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.06. The stock has a market cap of $2.49 billion, a PE ratio of 55.08, a PEG ratio of 16.02 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WERN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Werner Enterprises from $37.00 to $33.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Werner Enterprises from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Stephens dropped their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Werner Enterprises from $35.00 to $32.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.57.

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.