Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) Short Interest Up 10.7% in September

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,450,000 shares, an increase of 10.7% from the August 31st total of 1,310,000 shares. Currently, 3.3% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 359,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.0 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HTLD has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Heartland Express from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $10.00 price target (down from $12.00) on shares of Heartland Express in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, UBS Group lowered Heartland Express from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $15.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Heartland Express currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $12.00.

Heartland Express Price Performance

HTLD stock traded down $0.23 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $12.05. The company had a trading volume of 414,287 shares, compared to its average volume of 357,057. The business has a 50 day moving average of $12.27 and a 200 day moving average of $11.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $952.56 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -70.88 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. Heartland Express has a fifty-two week low of $9.63 and a fifty-two week high of $15.56.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last issued 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. Heartland Express had a negative net margin of 2.17% and a negative return on equity of 2.84%. The company had revenue of $274.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $275.23 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.10 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Heartland Express will post -0.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Heartland Express Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be paid a $0.02 dividend. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 27th. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio is presently -47.06%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Heartland Express

In other Heartland Express news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin bought 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 11th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $11.67 per share, with a total value of $583,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,196,718 shares in the company, valued at $13,965,699.06. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 39.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Heartland Express

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Trexquant Investment LP acquired a new position in shares of Heartland Express in the 4th quarter valued at $640,000. Dean Capital Management boosted its holdings in shares of Heartland Express by 14.3% in the fourth quarter. Dean Capital Management now owns 150,014 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,139,000 after buying an additional 18,712 shares during the period. Cardinal Capital Management increased its position in shares of Heartland Express by 43.0% in the first quarter. Cardinal Capital Management now owns 58,015 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $694,000 after acquiring an additional 17,457 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 9,884 shares during the period. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP boosted its stake in Heartland Express by 292.4% in the 1st quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 108,999 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,301,000 after purchasing an additional 81,220 shares during the period. 53.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.