Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) Announces Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.02 EPS

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The transportation company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.02, Zacks reports. Heartland Express had a negative net margin of 2.11% and a negative return on equity of 2.70%.

Heartland Express Price Performance

Heartland Express stock traded down $0.36 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $11.45. The company had a trading volume of 115,096 shares, compared to its average volume of 347,328. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Heartland Express has a fifty-two week low of $9.63 and a fifty-two week high of $13.67. The company has a market cap of $899.14 million, a P/E ratio of -39.50 and a beta of 0.77. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.91.

Heartland Express Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th were issued a $0.02 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 27th. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -27.59%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Heartland Express from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays raised their price objective on Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.75.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Ann S. Gerdin Revocable Trust bought 49,506 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $12.24 per share, with a total value of $605,953.44. Following the acquisition, the insider now owns 898,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,998,668.16. This represents a 5.83 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Michael J. Gerdin purchased 5,210 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $11.49 per share, with a total value of $59,862.90. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 1,265,002 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,534,872.98. This trade represents a 0.41 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have bought 153,750 shares of company stock worth $1,786,918 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 39.60% of the company’s stock.

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.