Stephens Inc. AR Sells 13,908 Shares of FedEx Co. (NYSE:FDX)

Stephens Inc. AR cut its stake in shares of FedEx Co. (NYSE:FDX) by 21.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 52,353 shares of the shipping service provider’s stock after selling 13,908 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in FedEx were worth $14,729,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of FedEx by 473.8% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 784,691 shares of the shipping service provider’s stock valued at $2,147,540,000 after purchasing an additional 647,926 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in FedEx by 8.6% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,975,531 shares of the shipping service provider’s stock valued at $1,042,050,000 after buying an additional 314,380 shares during the period. KBC Group NV grew its position in FedEx by 197.4% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 341,390 shares of the shipping service provider’s stock worth $96,043,000 after buying an additional 226,608 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in FedEx by 2,163.7% in the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 192,441 shares of the shipping service provider’s stock worth $52,667,000 after acquiring an additional 183,940 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of FedEx in the 4th quarter valued at about $49,445,000. 84.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at FedEx

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on FDX shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of FedEx from $370.00 to $372.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Stephens lowered their price objective on shares of FedEx from $350.00 to $345.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of FedEx from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on FedEx from $368.00 to $364.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on FedEx from $325.00 to $348.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.87.

FedEx Trading Down 1.1 %

NYSE FDX opened at $256.01 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.23. FedEx Co. has a fifty-two week low of $234.45 and a fifty-two week high of $313.84. The stock has a market cap of $61.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.18. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $274.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $280.50.

FedEx (NYSE:FDX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The shipping service provider reported $4.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.88 by $0.17. FedEx had a net margin of 4.45% and a return on equity of 15.59%. The business had revenue of $22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $22.14 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.99 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $1.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $5.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.16%. FedEx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.