Heartland Express (HTLD) Projected to Post Quarterly Earnings on Wednesday

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) is projected to release its earnings data before the market opens on Wednesday, January 29th. Analysts expect Heartland Express to post earnings of ($0.04) per share and revenue of $254,270.00 billion for the quarter.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The transportation company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by ($0.11). Heartland Express had a negative return on equity of 2.70% and a negative net margin of 2.11%. The company had revenue of $259.86 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $268.35 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.14) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect Heartland Express to post $0 EPS for the current fiscal year and $0 EPS for the next fiscal year.

Heartland Express Price Performance

NASDAQ:HTLD opened at $11.81 on Tuesday. Heartland Express has a one year low of $9.63 and a one year high of $13.67. The stock has a market cap of $927.09 million, a PE ratio of -40.72 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.17. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $11.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $11.91.

Heartland Express Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th were paid a $0.02 dividend. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 27th. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -27.59%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on HTLD shares. UBS Group dropped their price objective 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 lifted their price target on shares of Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin purchased 63,074 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $10.95 per share, for a total transaction of $690,660.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,259,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,794,722.40. This represents a 5.27 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal 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 stock was purchased at an average cost of $12.24 per share, with a total value of $605,953.44. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 898,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,998,668.16. This represents a 5.83 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders purchased a total of 153,750 shares of company stock valued at $1,786,918 over the last 90 days. 39.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.