ING Groep NV Grows Stock Holdings in FedEx Co. (NYSE:FDX)

ING Groep NV lifted its position in shares of FedEx Co. (NYSE:FDX) by 131.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 76,409 shares of the shipping service provider’s stock after buying an additional 43,368 shares during the quarter. ING Groep NV’s holdings in FedEx were worth $21,496,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. bLong Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of FedEx during the 4th quarter valued at $391,000. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in FedEx in the 3rd quarter worth $3,405,000. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in FedEx in the 4th quarter worth $461,000. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its stake in FedEx by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 2,329 shares of the shipping service provider’s stock worth $631,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GFS Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in FedEx in the 4th quarter worth $26,855,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FDX. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of FedEx from $328.00 to $337.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Loop Capital downgraded shares of FedEx from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $365.00 to $283.00 in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of FedEx from $305.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of FedEx from $368.00 to $364.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of FedEx from $350.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.87.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Richard W. Smith sold 2,576 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.93, for a total value of $713,371.68. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 111,886 shares in the company, valued at $30,984,589.98. This represents a 2.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Susan C. Schwab sold 3,980 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.45, for a total transaction of $1,100,271.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 8,904 shares in the company, valued at $2,461,510.80. The trade was a 30.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 8.87% of the company’s stock.

FedEx Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE FDX opened at $268.49 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $271.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $278.38. The stock has a market cap of $64.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.18. FedEx Co. has a 12-month low of $238.21 and a 12-month high of $313.84. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.

FedEx (NYSE:FDX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The shipping service provider reported $4.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.88 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $22 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $22.14 billion. FedEx had a net margin of 4.45% and a return on equity of 15.59%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.99 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that FedEx Co. will post 19.14 earnings per share for the current year.

FedEx Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $1.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $5.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.06%. FedEx’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.18%.

FedEx Profile

FedEx Corporation provides transportation, e-commerce, and business services in the United States and internationally. It operates through FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, and FedEx Services segments. The FedEx Express segment offers express transportation, small-package ground delivery, and freight transportation services; and time-critical transportation services.