Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The transportation company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by ($0.11), Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $259.86 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $268.35 million. Heartland Express had a negative return on equity of 2.70% and a negative net margin of 2.11%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.14) EPS.

Heartland Express Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of HTLD traded up $0.17 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $10.98. 86,615 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 345,613. The business has a fifty day moving average of $11.83 and a 200-day moving average of $11.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $861.93 million, a PE ratio of -37.72 and a beta of 0.69. Heartland Express has a 1-year low of $9.63 and a 1-year high of $14.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Heartland Express Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th were given a dividend of $0.02 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. Heartland Express’s payout ratio is currently -27.59%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HTLD has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $10.00 price target (down from $12.00) on shares of Heartland Express in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Heartland Express from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Heartland Express from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $11.75.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Heartland Express 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 cost of $11.67 per share, for a total transaction of $583,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,196,718 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,965,699.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 39.60% 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.