Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.14

Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WERN - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 19th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.14 per share by the transportation company on Wednesday, May 7th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 14th.

Werner Enterprises has raised its dividend payment by an average of 6.8% annually over the last three years. Werner Enterprises has a dividend payout ratio of 26.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Werner Enterprises to earn $2.22 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 25.2%.

Werner Enterprises Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of Werner Enterprises stock traded down $0.37 during trading on Friday, reaching $33.70. The company's stock had a trading volume of 918,317 shares, compared to its average volume of 668,993. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.28. Werner Enterprises has a 1-year low of $32.39 and a 1-year high of $42.48. The company has a market cap of $2.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.27 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The transportation company reported $0.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.23 by ($0.15). Werner Enterprises had a net margin of 1.13% and a return on equity of 2.27%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Werner Enterprises will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current year.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WERN. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Werner Enterprises from $55.00 to $52.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Werner Enterprises from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Werner Enterprises from $35.00 to $32.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Werner Enterprises from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Werner Enterprises from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $37.29.

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.