Barclays Boosts Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) Price Target to $11.00

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) had its price target hoisted by Barclays from $10.00 to $11.00 in a report published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an underweight rating on the transportation company’s stock.

Several other research firms have also commented on HTLD. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an underweight rating and issued a $10.00 target price (down from $12.00) on shares of Heartland Express in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. UBS Group lowered Heartland Express from a buy rating to a neutral rating and dropped their target price for the company from $15.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Heartland Express from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $12.00.

Heartland Express Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ HTLD traded down $0.31 during trading on Thursday, reaching $12.42. The company had a trading volume of 290,081 shares, compared to its average volume of 413,221. Heartland Express has a twelve month low of $9.63 and a twelve month high of $16.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $981.80 million, a PE ratio of -73.06 and a beta of 0.69. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $12.08 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The transportation company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.06) by $0.02. The company had revenue of $274.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $275.23 million. Heartland Express had a negative return on equity of 2.82% and a negative net margin of 2.17%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.10 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Heartland Express will post -0.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Heartland Express Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 5th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 25th were given a dividend of $0.02 per share. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 25th. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -47.06%.

Insider Transactions at Heartland Express

In related news, Director James G. Pratt bought 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was bought at an average price of $11.96 per share, with a total value of $107,640.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 23,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $280,210.84. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 39.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of HTLD. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 64.6% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,565 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC raised its stake in Heartland Express by 266.3% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,729 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 1,984 shares in the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Heartland Express during the first quarter valued at approximately $62,000. Inspire Advisors LLC raised its stake in Heartland Express by 23.3% during the first quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 14,715 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $176,000 after buying an additional 2,779 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in Heartland Express by 74.1% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 23,218 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $277,000 after buying an additional 9,884 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 53.45% of the company’s stock.

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.