Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) Announces $0.02 Quarterly Dividend

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, September 17th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th will be paid a dividend of 0.02 per share by the transportation company on Monday, October 7th. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th.

Heartland Express has a payout ratio of 22.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Heartland Express to earn $0.48 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 16.7%.

Heartland Express Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of HTLD stock traded down $0.01 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $12.41. 15,903 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 351,222. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $12.32 and its 200-day moving average is $11.73. The company has a market cap of $981.02 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -73.06 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 $15.70.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The transportation company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.06) by $0.02. Heartland Express had a negative return on equity of 2.84% and a negative net margin of 2.17%. The firm had revenue of $274.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $275.23 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.10 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Heartland Express will post -0.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on HTLD shares. UBS Group lowered shares of Heartland Express from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $15.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. StockNews.com raised shares of Heartland Express from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “underweight” rating and set a $10.00 price target (down previously from $12.00) on shares of Heartland Express in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Heartland Express

In other news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin bought 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 11th. The shares were bought at an average price of $11.67 per share, with a total value of $583,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,196,718 shares in the company, valued at $13,965,699.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 39.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.