Magnetar Financial LLC Takes Position in Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPD)

Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPD) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 10,733 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,305,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Expeditors International of Washington during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Optiver Holding B.V. acquired a new position in shares of Expeditors International of Washington during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. CVA Family Office LLC acquired a new position in Expeditors International of Washington during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Planned Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in Expeditors International of Washington during the fourth quarter worth $37,000. Finally, ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Expeditors International of Washington by 752.0% in the first quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 426 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 376 shares during the last quarter. 94.02% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Expeditors International of Washington from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $112.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on Expeditors International of Washington from $112.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Expeditors International of Washington from $111.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Expeditors International of Washington from $131.00 to $132.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Expeditors International of Washington from $112.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Mark A. Emmert sold 8,100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.67, for a total value of $1,001,727.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 14,085 shares in the company, valued at $1,741,891.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Mark A. Emmert sold 8,100 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.67, for a total value of $1,001,727.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 14,085 shares in the company, valued at $1,741,891.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Blake R. Bell sold 4,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.99, for a total transaction of $479,659.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 52,745 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,170,637.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Expeditors International of Washington Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of EXPD traded down $0.67 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $124.18. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 912,852 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,341,872. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $122.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $121.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.31, a P/E/G ratio of 5.29 and a beta of 0.98. Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. has a 1-year low of $107.03 and a 1-year high of $131.17.

Expeditors International of Washington (NASDAQ:EXPD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 7th. The transportation company reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $2.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.22 billion. Expeditors International of Washington had a return on equity of 28.89% and a net margin of 7.81%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.45 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. will post 4.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Expeditors International of Washington Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd were issued a $0.73 dividend. This represents a yield of 1.2%. This is a positive change from Expeditors International of Washington’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.69. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 3rd. Expeditors International of Washington’s dividend payout ratio is 30.93%.

About Expeditors International of Washington

Expeditors International of Washington, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides logistics services worldwide. The company offers airfreight services, such as air freight consolidation and forwarding; ocean freight and ocean services, including ocean freight consolidation, direct ocean forwarding, and order management; customs brokerage, import, intra-continental ground transportation and delivery, and warehousing and distribution services; and customs clearance, purchase order management, vendor consolidation, time-definite transportation services, temperature-controlled transit, cargo insurance, specialized cargo monitoring and tracking, and other supply chain solutions.