Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) Issues Earnings Results

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The transportation company reported ($0.19) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by ($0.07), Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $270.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $263.92 million. Heartland Express had a return on equity of 1.71% and a net margin of 1.22%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.16 earnings per share.

Heartland Express Trading Down 1.3 %

Heartland Express stock traded down $0.14 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $10.29. The stock had a trading volume of 50,444 shares, compared to its average volume of 307,083. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The stock has a market cap of $813.22 million, a PE ratio of 56.94 and a beta of 0.62. Heartland Express has a 52 week low of $10.00 and a 52 week high of $17.08. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.75 and a 200-day simple moving average of $12.89.

Heartland Express Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 26th were issued a $0.02 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 25th. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.44%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Heartland Express

In other news, major shareholder Ann S. Gerdin Revocable Trust bought 14,933 shares of Heartland Express stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $12.39 per share, for a total transaction of $185,019.87. Following the acquisition, the insider now owns 159,865 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,980,727.35. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 39.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Heartland Express from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Heartland Express from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Heartland Express from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on Heartland Express from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Heartland Express has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.75.

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.