Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) Announces Earnings Results

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The transportation company reported ($0.19) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12) by ($0.07), Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $270.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $263.92 million. Heartland Express had a return on equity of 1.71% and a net margin of 1.22%. The company’s revenue was down 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.16 EPS.

Heartland Express Price Performance

HTLD stock opened at $10.43 on Wednesday. Heartland Express has a 12-month low of $10.00 and a 12-month high of $17.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $11.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $12.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $824.28 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.94 and a beta of 0.62.

Heartland Express Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 26th were given a $0.02 dividend. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 25th. Heartland Express’s payout ratio is 44.44%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

HTLD has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Heartland Express from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Heartland Express from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Heartland Express from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Heartland Express from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.75.

Insider Activity at Heartland Express

In related news, major shareholder Ann S. Gerdin Revocable Trust purchased 14,933 shares of Heartland Express stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were bought at an average price of $12.39 per share, for a total transaction of $185,019.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 159,865 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,980,727.35. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 39.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Heartland Express

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.