Heartland Express, Inc. (HTLD) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.02 on January 8th

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 20th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of 0.02 per share by the transportation company on Wednesday, January 8th. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th.

Heartland Express has a dividend payout ratio of 72.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Heartland Express to earn $0.22 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 36.4%.

Heartland Express Price Performance

Shares of HTLD stock opened at $11.13 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $873.67 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -38.38 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Heartland Express has a twelve month low of $9.63 and a twelve month high of $14.60. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $12.03.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The transportation company reported ($0.12) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by ($0.11). Heartland Express had a negative return on equity of 2.70% and a negative net margin of 2.11%. The business had revenue of $259.86 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $268.35 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.14) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Heartland Express will post -0.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Heartland Express

In related news, major shareholder Ann S. Gerdin Revocable Trust acquired 49,506 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $12.24 per share, for a total transaction of $605,953.44. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 898,584 shares in the company, valued at $10,998,668.16. The trade was a 5.83 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael J. Gerdin acquired 63,074 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $10.95 per share, with a total value of $690,660.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,259,792 shares in the company, valued at $13,794,722.40. The trade was a 5.27 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought a total of 153,750 shares of company stock worth $1,786,918 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 39.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. UBS Group cut their price target on Heartland Express from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.75.

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.