JPMorgan Chase & Co. Upgrades FedEx (NYSE:FDX) to “Overweight”

FedEx (NYSE:FDX) was upgraded by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $359.00 price objective on the shipping service provider’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $296.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s target price points to a potential upside of 21.50% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Bank of America lowered their target price on FedEx from $346.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of FedEx from $265.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of FedEx in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. BNP Paribas restated an “underperform” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of FedEx in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded FedEx to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $314.00.

FedEx Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE FDX opened at $295.47 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $256.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $256.00. FedEx has a 52 week low of $224.69 and a 52 week high of $296.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $72.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.16.

FedEx (NYSE:FDX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 25th. The shipping service provider reported $5.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.34 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $22.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $22.04 billion. FedEx had a return on equity of 16.86% and a net margin of 4.94%. The business’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.94 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that FedEx will post 20.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FedEx declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, March 21st that allows the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the shipping service provider to buy up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at FedEx

In other FedEx news, Chairman Frederick W. Smith sold 113,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.30, for a total value of $31,105,620.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 14,505,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,978,953,009.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other FedEx news, Chairman Frederick W. Smith sold 113,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.30, for a total value of $31,105,620.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 14,505,844 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,978,953,009.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Richard W. Smith sold 1,325 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.24, for a total value of $368,668.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 84,614 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,542,999.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 117,275 shares of company stock worth $32,177,298 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 8.73% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FedEx

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of FDX. Sentry LLC bought a new position in shares of FedEx in the fourth quarter valued at $1,811,748,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of FedEx during the fourth quarter valued at $700,291,000. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of FedEx by 32.5% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,831,084 shares of the shipping service provider’s stock valued at $2,558,718,000 after purchasing an additional 2,163,622 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in FedEx by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,868,165 shares of the shipping service provider’s stock worth $5,756,602,000 after purchasing an additional 1,056,061 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Putnam Investments LLC raised its holdings in FedEx by 38.1% during the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 2,893,781 shares of the shipping service provider’s stock worth $732,040,000 after buying an additional 798,084 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.47% of the company’s stock.

FedEx Company Profile

FedEx Corporation provides transportation, e-commerce, and business services in the United States and internationally. It operates through FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, and FedEx Services segments. The FedEx Express segment offers express transportation, small-package ground delivery, and freight transportation services; and time-critical transportation services.