Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) CEO Purchases $583,500.00 in Stock

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) CEO Michael J. Gerdin purchased 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $11.67 per share, with a total value of $583,500.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 1,196,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,965,699.06. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Heartland Express Stock Performance

NASDAQ HTLD opened at $12.11 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $950.64 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -71.24 and a beta of 0.69. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $12.31 and a 200 day moving average of $11.76. 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, Inc. has a twelve month low of $9.63 and a twelve month high of $16.29.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on HTLD. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “underweight” rating and set a $10.00 target price (down from $12.00) on shares of Heartland Express in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. UBS Group downgraded Heartland Express from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $15.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Heartland Express from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HTLD. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,172,549 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $45,241,000 after acquiring an additional 264,313 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Heartland Express by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 704,437 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $10,045,000 after purchasing an additional 31,045 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Heartland Express by 14.6% during the 1st quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 666,675 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $7,960,000 after buying an additional 84,739 shares during the period. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Heartland Express during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $5,584,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its position in Heartland Express by 243.2% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 241,755 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,981,000 after acquiring an additional 171,319 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 53.45% 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.