Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Buys 49,160 Shares of FedEx Co. (NYSE:FDX)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in FedEx Co. (NYSE:FDX) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,500,736 shares of the shipping service provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 49,160 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in FedEx were worth $422,202,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fortitude Family Office LLC boosted its position in shares of FedEx by 144.4% in the 4th quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC now owns 88 shares of the shipping service provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Peoples Financial Services CORP. bought a new position in shares of FedEx in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. City Holding Co. bought a new position in shares of FedEx in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Kentucky Trust Co bought a new position in shares of FedEx in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Activest Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of FedEx in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. 84.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Richard W. Smith sold 2,576 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.93, for a total transaction of $713,371.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 111,886 shares in the company, valued at $30,984,589.98. The trade was a 2.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Susan C. Schwab sold 3,980 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.45, for a total value of $1,100,271.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 8,904 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,461,510.80. This represents a 30.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 8.87% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America raised their price target on FedEx from $325.00 to $348.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com raised FedEx from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on FedEx from $368.00 to $364.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on FedEx from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on FedEx from $311.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $319.74.

FedEx Price Performance

NYSE:FDX opened at $247.45 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.23. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $268.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $276.88. The company has a market cap of $59.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.18. FedEx Co. has a 52-week low of $242.92 and a 52-week high of $313.84.

FedEx (NYSE:FDX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The shipping service provider reported $4.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.88 by $0.17. FedEx had a return on equity of 15.59% and a net margin of 4.45%. The business had revenue of $22 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $22.14 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.99 earnings per share. FedEx’s quarterly revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that FedEx Co. will post 19.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FedEx Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.38 per share. This represents a $5.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. FedEx’s payout ratio is currently 35.18%.

About FedEx

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.