Rush Enterprises (NASDAQ:RUSHA) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Rush Enterprises (NASDAQ:RUSHA) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Sunday,Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on RUSHA. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Rush Enterprises from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Weiss Ratings raised Rush Enterprises from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Stephens upped their target price on Rush Enterprises from $40.00 to $42.22 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $56.67 target price (up from $52.00) on shares of Rush Enterprises in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.00.

Rush Enterprises Stock Performance

Shares of RUSHA stock opened at $44.48 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.19 billion, a PE ratio of 20.10, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.92. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $48.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.38. Rush Enterprises has a one year low of $30.45 and a one year high of $55.74.

Rush Enterprises (NASDAQ:RUSHA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.02. Rush Enterprises had a net margin of 3.67% and a return on equity of 11.65%. The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Rush Enterprises will post 2.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Rush Enterprises Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 24th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th were given a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 9th. This is a drop from Rush Enterprises’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. Rush Enterprises’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.34%.

Insider Activity at Rush Enterprises

In other Rush Enterprises news, CEO William M. Rusty Rush sold 161,041 shares of Rush Enterprises stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total value of $5,801,054.69. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 391,846 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,115,163.69. The trade was a 29.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Steven L. Keller sold 46,525 shares of Rush Enterprises stock in a transaction on Friday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.88, for a total transaction of $1,669,317.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 189,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,811,495.08. This trade represents a 19.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 252,561 shares of company stock worth $9,092,298 over the last quarter. 12.68% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Rush Enterprises

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp increased its stake in Rush Enterprises by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,430,986 shares of the company’s stock valued at $177,426,000 after buying an additional 96,418 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Rush Enterprises by 166.4% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,121,450 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,139,000 after acquiring an additional 700,511 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in Rush Enterprises by 83.9% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 724,410 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,920,000 after purchasing an additional 330,553 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Rush Enterprises by 9.5% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 566,287 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,437,000 after buying an additional 49,009 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Rush Enterprises in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,811,000. Institutional investors own 84.43% of the company’s stock.

About Rush Enterprises

Rush Enterprises, Inc is a commercial vehicle solutions provider that operates a network of truck dealerships under the Rush Truck Centers name. The company sells new and used commercial vehicles, including trucks and related equipment from manufacturers such as Peterbilt, International, Ford, Isuzu and Hino, serving customers in the trucking, construction, energy, public-sector and other industries.

In addition to vehicle sales, Rush Truck Centers provides aftermarket support through parts distribution, maintenance, repair and collision services.