Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) Issues Earnings Results

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The transportation company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by $0.02, Zacks reports. Heartland Express had a negative return on equity of 2.70% and a negative net margin of 2.11%.

Heartland Express Stock Down 2.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ HTLD opened at $11.28 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $11.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $11.90. The company has a market cap of $885.09 million, a P/E ratio of -39.03 and a beta of 0.77. Heartland Express has a 12-month low of $9.63 and a 12-month high of $13.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Heartland Express Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th were paid a dividend of $0.02 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 27th. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio is currently -27.59%.

Insider Transactions at Heartland Express

In other news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin bought 63,074 shares of Heartland Express stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $10.95 per share, with a total value of $690,660.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,259,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,794,722.40. This trade represents a 5.27 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Ann S. Gerdin Revocable Trust purchased 49,506 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $12.24 per share, for a total transaction of $605,953.44. Following the purchase, the insider now directly owns 898,584 shares in the company, valued at $10,998,668.16. This trade represents a 5.83 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders purchased 153,750 shares of company stock valued at $1,786,918 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 39.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HTLD has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Heartland Express from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.75.

About Heartland Express

Heartland Express, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a short-to-medium, and long-haul truckload carrier in the United States and Canada. It primarily provides nationwide asset-based dry van truckload service for shippers; cross-border freight and other transportation services; and temperature-controlled truckload services.