Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) Announces Earnings Results

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

Heartland Express Trading Down 4.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ HTLD traded down $0.48 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $11.34. 86,915 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 346,168. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The company has a market capitalization of $889.80 million, a P/E ratio of -39.31 and a beta of 0.77. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $11.64 and a 200-day moving average price of $11.91. Heartland Express has a 52-week low of $9.63 and a 52-week high of $13.67.

Heartland Express Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th were issued a $0.02 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 27th. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -27.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin bought 63,074 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $10.95 per share, for a total transaction of $690,660.30. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 1,259,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,794,722.40. This trade represents a 5.27 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Ann S. Gerdin Revocable Trust acquired 49,506 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $12.24 per share, for a total transaction of $605,953.44. Following the purchase, the insider now directly owns 898,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Over the last 90 days, insiders have bought 153,750 shares of company stock worth $1,786,918. 39.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays lifted their target price on Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Heartland Express from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Heartland Express 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.