Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.02

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, September 17th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be paid a dividend of 0.02 per share by the transportation company on Monday, October 7th. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th.

Heartland Express has a payout ratio of 22.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Heartland Express to earn $0.48 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 16.7%.

Heartland Express Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:HTLD traded down $0.01 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $12.41. 15,903 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 351,222. Heartland Express has a 52 week low of $9.63 and a 52 week high of $15.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The company has a market cap of $981.02 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -73.06 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $12.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $11.73.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The transportation company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.06) by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $274.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $275.23 million. Heartland Express had a negative return on equity of 2.84% and a negative net margin of 2.17%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.10 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Heartland Express will post -0.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Heartland Express

In related news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin purchased 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was bought at an average price of $11.67 per share, for a total transaction of $583,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,196,718 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,965,699.06. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 39.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

HTLD has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group cut Heartland Express from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $15.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Barclays upped their price target on Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. StockNews.com raised Heartland Express from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $10.00 target price (down from $12.00) on shares of Heartland Express in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.00.

Heartland Express Company Profile

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.