Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) PT Lowered to $10.00

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) had its price target decreased by analysts at Barclays from $11.00 to $10.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “underweight” rating on the transportation company’s stock. Barclays‘s price target would suggest a potential downside of 3.85% from the company’s previous close.

HTLD has been the subject of a number of other research 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. reduced their price objective on shares of Heartland Express from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Heartland Express from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.25.

Heartland Express Stock Performance

Shares of Heartland Express stock opened at $10.40 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market cap of $821.91 million, a P/E ratio of -61.18 and a beta of 0.62. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $12.68. Heartland Express has a fifty-two week low of $9.63 and a fifty-two week high of $17.08.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The transportation company reported ($0.19) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12) by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $270.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $263.92 million. Heartland Express had a negative net margin of 1.13% and a negative return on equity of 1.50%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.16 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Heartland Express will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Heartland Express

In other news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin purchased 66,000 shares of Heartland Express stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $10.45 per share, with a total value of $689,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,594 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,419,307.30. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin purchased 31,200 shares of Heartland Express stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 29th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $9.97 per share, with a total value of $311,064.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 88,909 shares in the company, valued at approximately $886,422.73. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael J. Gerdin purchased 66,000 shares of Heartland Express stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $10.45 per share, for a total transaction of $689,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 518,594 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,419,307.30. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have acquired 295,729 shares of company stock valued at $3,072,787. 39.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Heartland Express

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in Heartland Express by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 7,944,508 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $116,705,000 after acquiring an additional 55,720 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Heartland Express by 9.1% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,172,549 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $45,241,000 after acquiring an additional 264,313 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in Heartland Express by 99.2% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,224,494 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $17,988,000 after acquiring an additional 609,769 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Heartland Express by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 704,437 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $10,045,000 after acquiring an additional 31,045 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Heartland Express by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 695,582 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $10,218,000 after acquiring an additional 48,026 shares in the last quarter. 53.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.