Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) Posts Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.07 EPS

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The transportation company reported ($0.19) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12) by ($0.07), Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $270.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $263.92 million. Heartland Express had a return on equity of 1.71% and a net margin of 1.22%. The company’s revenue was down 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.16 earnings per share.

Heartland Express Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of HTLD stock traded down $0.13 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $10.30. 27,119 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 306,951. Heartland Express has a 1-year low of $10.00 and a 1-year high of $17.08. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $11.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.89. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $814.01 million, a PE ratio of 56.94 and a beta of 0.62.

Heartland Express Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Ann S. Gerdin Revocable Trust acquired 14,933 shares of the company’s 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 purchase, the insider now owns 159,865 shares in the company, valued at $1,980,727.35. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 39.80% 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.