Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) and Kuehne & Nagel International (OTCMKTS:KHNGY) Critical Contrast

Kuehne & Nagel International (OTCMKTS:KHNGY) and Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ:WERN) are both industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, earnings, valuation and dividends.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

89.3% of Werner Enterprises shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Werner Enterprises shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Kuehne & Nagel International has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Werner Enterprises has a beta of 1.27, indicating that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Kuehne & Nagel International and Werner Enterprises, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kuehne & Nagel International	2	3	2	0	2.00
Werner Enterprises	3	8	4	1	2.19

Werner Enterprises has a consensus price target of $41.54, indicating a potential upside of 13.25%. Given Werner Enterprises’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Werner Enterprises is more favorable than Kuehne & Nagel International.

Profitability

This table compares Kuehne & Nagel International and Werner Enterprises’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kuehne & Nagel International	3.57%	38.52%	7.38%
Werner Enterprises	-1.42%	1.18%	0.52%

Dividends

Kuehne & Nagel International pays an annual dividend of $0.93 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Werner Enterprises pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Kuehne & Nagel International pays out 50.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Werner Enterprises pays out -73.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Werner Enterprises has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Kuehne & Nagel International and Werner Enterprises”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kuehne & Nagel International	$29.53 billion	1.01	$1.06 billion	$1.84	26.77
Werner Enterprises	$2.97 billion	0.74	-$14.40 million	($0.76)	-48.26

Kuehne & Nagel International has higher revenue and earnings than Werner Enterprises. Werner Enterprises is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Kuehne & Nagel International, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Werner Enterprises beats Kuehne & Nagel International on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Kuehne & Nagel International

Kuehne + Nagel International AG, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated logistics services worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Sea Logistics, Air Logistics, Road Logistics, and Contract Logistics. It offers less-than-container load, reefer and project logistics, and flexible container shipping solutions. The company also provides time-critical solutions, sea-air and time-defined products, airside and air charter services, cargo insurance, and customs clearance services. In addition, it offers spare parts logistics, production, and e-commerce logistics, distribution, packaging, and process solutions. Further, the company provides supply chain consulting and order management services. It serves aerospace, automotive, mobility, consumer, healthcare, high-tech and semicon, industrial, and perishables industries. The company was founded in 1890 and is based in Schindellegi, Switzerland. Kuehne + Nagel International AG is a subsidiary of Kuehne Holding AG.

About Werner Enterprises

Werner Enterprises, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in transporting truckload shipments of general commodities in interstate and intrastate commerce in the United States, Mexico, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Truckload Transportation Services and Werner Logistics. The Truckload Transportation Services segment operates a fleet of medium-to-long-haul vans that transports various consumer nondurable products and other commodities in truckload quantities using dry van trailers; the expedited fleet, which offers time-sensitive truckload services using driver teams; a regional short-haul fleet that provides truckload van service in the United States; and temperature-controlled fleet, which offers truckload services for temperature-sensitive products using temperature-controlled trailers. This segment provides truckload services to retail distribution centers or manufacturing facilities using dry vans or trailers to transport retail store merchandise, consumer products, food and beverage products, and manufactured products. As of December 31, 2023, it had a fleet of 8,000 trucks, which included 7,740 company-operated, as well as 260 owned and operated by independent contractors; and 30,810 trailers that comprised dry vans, flatbeds, temperature-controlled, and other trailers. The Werner Logistics segment provides non-asset-based transportation and logistics services, including truck brokerage; logistics management services and solutions; rail transportation through alliances with rail and drayage providers; and residential and commercial deliveries of large or heavy items using liftgate straight trucks. As of December 31, 2023, this segment operated 35 drayage tractors and 115 delivery trucks. It also sells used trucks and trailers; and trades used trucks to original equipment manufacturers. The company was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska.