XPO (NYSE:XPO) Raised to “Buy” at Stifel Nicolaus

Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of XPO (NYSE:XPO) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $120.00 price target on the transportation company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $115.00.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of XPO from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of XPO from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $75.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of XPO from $100.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Benchmark lifted their target price on XPO from $125.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on XPO from $98.00 to $126.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $116.60.

XPO Stock Performance

Shares of XPO stock opened at $108.37 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $12.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.12, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 2.17. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $117.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $104.08. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.49. XPO has a 12 month low of $46.65 and a 12 month high of $130.51.

XPO (NYSE:XPO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 3rd. The transportation company reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.13. XPO had a return on equity of 30.77% and a net margin of 3.08%. The business had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that XPO will post 3.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at XPO

In related news, major shareholder Mfn Partners, Lp sold 1,250,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.98, for a total transaction of $141,225,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 11,425,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,290,838,189.62. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On XPO

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of XPO by 49.9% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 9,290,937 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $813,824,000 after purchasing an additional 3,094,390 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in shares of XPO by 12,894.9% during the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,304,037 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $97,359,000 after acquiring an additional 1,294,002 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of XPO during the 4th quarter worth approximately $79,592,000. Eminence Capital LP grew its holdings in shares of XPO by 137.4% in the 3rd quarter. Eminence Capital LP now owns 1,191,311 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $88,943,000 after acquiring an additional 689,457 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of XPO by 33.4% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,234,691 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $272,699,000 after acquiring an additional 560,079 shares during the period. 97.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

XPO Company Profile

XPO, Inc provides freight transportation services in the United States, rest of North America, France, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, North American LTL and European Transportation. The North American LTL segment provides customers with less-than-truckload (LTL) services, such as geographic density and day-definite domestic services.