Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 1,741,727 shares, a decrease of 20.2% from the February 26th total of 2,183,093 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 459,564 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.8 days. Approximately 3.8% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Heartland Express

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Jump Financial LLC grew its stake in Heartland Express by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 12,252 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $111,000 after purchasing an additional 870 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Heartland Express by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 27,708 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $255,000 after buying an additional 1,170 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 76.7% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,905 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 1,261 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 126,736 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,095,000 after buying an additional 1,262 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC increased its holdings in Heartland Express by 11.7% in the second quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 14,504 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $125,000 after buying an additional 1,517 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 53.45% of the company’s stock.

Heartland Express Stock Up 2.5%

NASDAQ:HTLD traded up $0.25 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $10.40. 387,704 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 413,608. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $10.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.34. The firm has a market cap of $805.53 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.29 and a beta of 1.13. Heartland Express has a fifty-two week low of $6.99 and a fifty-two week high of $12.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 9th. The transportation company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.07) by $0.01. Heartland Express had a negative return on equity of 4.79% and a negative net margin of 6.51%.The firm had revenue of $157.68 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $194.54 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.12) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 26.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Heartland Express will post 0.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Heartland Express Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.02 per share. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 24th. Heartland Express’s payout ratio is currently -11.76%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on HTLD. Morgan Stanley set a $9.00 target price on Heartland Express in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Heartland Express in a research note on Friday. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Heartland Express from $8.50 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Robert W. Baird set a $12.00 price objective on shares of Heartland Express and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Heartland Express from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, January 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $10.20.

About Heartland Express

Heartland Express, Inc (NASDAQ: HTLD) is a publicly traded truckload carrier headquartered in North Liberty, Iowa. The company specializes in full truckload transportation, offering dry-van services that connect shippers with customers across the continental United States. Its primary focus is on over-the-road freight movements, serving industries such as manufacturing, retail, and consumer goods.

Founded in 1978 as Heartland Motor Freight, the company has grown from a regional carrier into one of the larger U.S.