Brandes Investment Partners LP Invests $258,000 in Landstar System, Inc. (NASDAQ:LSTR)

Brandes Investment Partners LP bought a new stake in Landstar System, Inc. (NASDAQ:LSTR) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 1,401 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $258,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in LSTR. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Landstar System by 0.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,480,039 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $670,812,000 after purchasing an additional 25,387 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Landstar System by 6.2% in the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,697,093 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $313,080,000 after acquiring an additional 99,461 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its stake in Landstar System by 1.0% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,586,286 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $305,671,000 after acquiring an additional 15,424 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Landstar System by 6.6% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 594,895 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $109,743,000 after acquiring an additional 37,020 shares during the period. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Landstar System by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 429,315 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $82,755,000 after purchasing an additional 10,538 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Landstar System from $171.00 to $176.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Landstar System from $161.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Landstar System in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Landstar System from $164.00 to $160.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Landstar System from $147.00 to $145.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $179.73.

Landstar System Trading Up 1.0 %

LSTR opened at $188.87 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $185.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $182.62. Landstar System, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $161.13 and a fifty-two week high of $201.40. The company has a market cap of $6.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.06 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.17 and a quick ratio of 2.17.

Landstar System (NASDAQ:LSTR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The transportation company reported $1.48 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.02. Landstar System had a net margin of 4.49% and a return on equity of 21.69%. The company had revenue of $1.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.85 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Landstar System, Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Landstar System Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 20th were issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 20th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. This is a boost from Landstar System’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. Landstar System’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.15%.

About Landstar System

Landstar System, Inc provides integrated transportation management solutions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and internationally. It operates through two segments: Transportation Logistics and Insurance. The Transportation Logistics segment offers a range of transportation services, including truckload and less-than-truckload transportation, rail intermodal, air cargo, ocean cargo, expedited ground and air delivery of time-critical freight, heavy-haul/specialized, U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico cross-border, intra-Mexico, intra-Canada, project cargo, and customs brokerage, as well as offers transportation services to other transportation companies, such as third party logistics and less-than-truckload services.