What Happened?
A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after President Trump declared the Iran ceasefire "over" and vowed renewed strikes, reversing the fuel relief the sector had enjoyed and sending oil back above $75.
Transportation is the most direct cyclical proxy for fuel costs and global trade volumes. Airlines, truckers, railroads, parcel carriers, and ocean shippers all run on diesel and jet fuel, typically their second-largest cost line behind labor, so the roughly 7% crude jump flows almost dollar-for-dollar out of operating margin within the same quarter.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
- Ground Transportation company Werner (NASDAQ: WERN) fell 2.7%. Is now the time to buy Werner? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Ground Transportation company Avis Budget Group (NASDAQ: CAR) fell 2.7%. Is now the time to buy Avis Budget Group? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Werner (WERN)
Werner’s shares are quite volatile and have had 19 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 2 months ago when the stock gained 6.3% on the news that it reported first-quarter 2026 results that surpassed Wall Street's expectations.
The company announced total revenue of $808.6 million, a 13.6% increase from the prior year, beating consensus estimates. More significantly, Werner's profitability saw a notable turnaround, with its operating margin swinging to a positive 0.5% from a negative 0.8% in the same quarter a year ago.
This resulted in an adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.02, which was a significant beat compared to the anticipated loss of $0.06 per share. Adding to the positive results, the company raised its full-year guidance for Revenue Per Truck Per Week (RPTPW), a key metric measuring efficiency in its Dedicated trucking division.
Werner is up 38.1% since the beginning of the year, and at $42.28 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $44.51 from June 2026. Despite the year-to-date gain, investors who bought $1,000 worth of Werner’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at only $961.45.
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