Private Management Group Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in FedEx Co. (NYSE:FDX)

Private Management Group Inc. reduced its stake in shares of FedEx Co. (NYSE:FDX) by 10.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 80,950 shares of the shipping service provider’s stock after selling 9,245 shares during the period. Private Management Group Inc.’s holdings in FedEx were worth $20,478,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in FedEx by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,729,110 shares of the shipping service provider’s stock valued at $4,961,716,000 after purchasing an additional 59,161 shares in the last quarter. Sentry LLC acquired a new stake in FedEx during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,811,748,000. FMR LLC grew its stake in FedEx by 29.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,063,938 shares of the shipping service provider’s stock valued at $1,076,619,000 after purchasing an additional 916,555 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in FedEx by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,238,185 shares of the shipping service provider’s stock valued at $857,860,000 after purchasing an additional 35,085 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in FedEx by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,004,838 shares of the shipping service provider’s stock valued at $796,042,000 after purchasing an additional 360,680 shares in the last quarter. 84.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at FedEx

In other FedEx news, Director Susan C. Schwab sold 6,145 shares of FedEx stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.02, for a total transaction of $1,769,882.90. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,865 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,265,277.30. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Susan C. Schwab sold 6,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.02, for a total value of $1,769,882.90. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,865 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,265,277.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sriram Krishnasamy sold 354 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.19, for a total value of $102,373.26. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,223,600.93. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 136,668 shares of company stock valued at $37,758,773 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 8.73% of the company’s stock.

FedEx Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FDX traded up $1.52 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $271.67. The company had a trading volume of 1,186,577 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,060,923. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $260.44 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $254.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.31 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The stock has a market cap of $66.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.67, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.21. FedEx Co. has a 12 month low of $213.80 and a 12 month high of $291.27.

FedEx (NYSE:FDX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The shipping service provider reported $3.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.37. The firm had revenue of $21.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.95 billion. FedEx had a return on equity of 16.60% and a net margin of 5.02%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.41 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that FedEx Co. will post 17.67 earnings per share for the current year.

FedEx announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, March 21st that permits the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the shipping service provider to reacquire up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

FedEx Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 11th were paid a dividend of $1.26 per share. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 8th. FedEx’s payout ratio is currently 29.07%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on FDX. Melius Research upgraded FedEx from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, January 8th. StockNews.com lowered FedEx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, February 11th. Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of FedEx in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Bank of America decreased their target price on FedEx from $346.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on FedEx from $323.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $301.33.

FedEx Company 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.