Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) Announces Earnings Results

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The transportation company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by ($0.11), Briefing.com reports. Heartland Express had a negative net margin of 2.17% and a negative return on equity of 2.84%. The business had revenue of $259.86 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $268.35 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.14) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year.

Heartland Express Stock Up 0.5 %

HTLD stock traded up $0.05 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $11.09. The company had a trading volume of 4,419 shares, compared to its average volume of 344,832. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.23. Heartland Express has a fifty-two week low of $9.63 and a fifty-two week high of $14.60. The company has a market capitalization of $876.68 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -64.94 and a beta of 0.69.

Heartland Express Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were paid a $0.02 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -47.06%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Heartland Express news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin acquired 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 11th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $11.67 per share, with a total value of $583,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,196,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,965,699.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 39.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on HTLD. StockNews.com raised Heartland Express from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Heartland Express from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “underweight” rating and set a $10.00 price target (down from $12.00) on shares of Heartland Express in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently 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.