Punch & Associates Investment Management Inc. Purchases New Holdings in Heartland Express, Inc. $HTLD

Punch & Associates Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 331,765 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,049,000. Punch & Associates Investment Management Inc. owned 0.43% of Heartland Express as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Heartland Express in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Heartland Express by 76.7% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,905 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 1,261 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its position in Heartland Express by 185.5% during the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 4,673 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 3,036 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 51.3% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 11,549 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $97,000 after acquiring an additional 3,918 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Heartland Express by 18.1% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,525 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $99,000 after buying an additional 999 shares during the last quarter. 53.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director David Paul Millis sold 31,402 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.67, for a total value of $492,069.34. Following the transaction, the director owned 28,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $444,824.29. The trade was a 52.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 41.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on HTLD. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Heartland Express from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Heartland Express in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Heartland Express from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Heartland Express from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on Heartland Express from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $13.00.

Heartland Express Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of HTLD stock opened at $12.47 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 1.58. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $13.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $12.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $964.31 million, a PE ratio of -44.53 and a beta of 1.33. Heartland Express, Inc. has a 52-week low of $6.99 and a 52-week high of $16.64.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The transportation company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $152.38 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $185.08 million. Heartland Express had a negative return on equity of 0.92% and a negative net margin of 2.98%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.14) earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Heartland Express, Inc. will post 0.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Heartland Express

Heartland Express, Inc (NASDAQ: HTLD) is a publicly traded truckload carrier headquartered in North Liberty, Iowa. The company specializes in full truckload transportation, offering dry-van services that connect shippers with customers across the continental United States. Its primary focus is on over-the-road freight movements, serving industries such as manufacturing, retail, and consumer goods.

Founded in 1978 as Heartland Motor Freight, the company has grown from a regional carrier into one of the larger U.S.