Saia, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIA) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Saia, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIA) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the nineteen analysts that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $526.39.

SAIA has been the subject of a number of research reports. Susquehanna boosted their price target on Saia from $530.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Saia in a research report on Friday, March 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $570.00 target price for the company. Raymond James decreased their target price on Saia from $560.00 to $540.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Citigroup decreased their target price on Saia from $544.00 to $498.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on Saia from $600.00 to $535.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday.

Insider Buying and Selling at Saia

In other news, CAO Kelly W. Benton sold 460 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $500.00, for a total transaction of $230,000.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,287 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,143,500. This represents a 9.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Patrick D. Sugar sold 799 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $493.74, for a total value of $394,498.26. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,629 shares in the company, valued at $4,260,482.46. The trade was a 8.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 9,493 shares of company stock worth $4,646,181 over the last quarter. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Saia

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Saia by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,522,938 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,149,779,000 after buying an additional 25,090 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its holdings in Saia by 69.3% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,939,615 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $883,941,000 after buying an additional 794,197 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Saia by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 805,597 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $352,255,000 after buying an additional 24,351 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its holdings in Saia by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 692,405 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $302,761,000 after buying an additional 64,351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Saia by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 471,667 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $206,292,000 after buying an additional 6,456 shares in the last quarter.

Saia Price Performance

SAIA stock opened at $352.36 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $456.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $467.11. Saia has a 12-month low of $347.11 and a 12-month high of $624.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.57, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company has a market cap of $9.38 billion, a PE ratio of 26.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.89.

Saia (NASDAQ:SAIA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 7th. The transportation company reported $2.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.87 by ($0.03). Saia had a net margin of 11.28% and a return on equity of 16.63%. The firm had revenue of $789.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $794.69 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.33 EPS. Saia’s revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Saia will post 15.46 EPS for the current year.

Saia Company Profile

Saia, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a transportation company in North America. The company provides less-than-truckload services for shipments between 100 and 10,000 pounds; and other value-added services, including non-asset truckload, expedited, and logistics services. It also offers other value-added services, including non-asset truckload, expedited, and logistics services.