Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.02

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be given a dividend of 0.02 per share by the transportation company on Wednesday, January 8th. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%.

Heartland Express has a payout ratio of 72.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Heartland Express to earn $0.22 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 36.4%.

Heartland Express Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of HTLD traded down $0.04 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $11.72. 334,338 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 354,411. Heartland Express has a 1-year low of $9.63 and a 1-year high of $14.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $919.98 million, a PE ratio of -40.41 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The business has a fifty day moving average of $11.88 and a 200-day moving average of $12.03.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The transportation company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by ($0.11). The business 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.14) EPS. Analysts expect that Heartland Express will post -0.38 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Heartland Express from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted 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 Wednesday, November 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Heartland Express news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin bought 5,210 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $11.49 per share, for a total transaction of $59,862.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,265,002 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,534,872.98. This represents a 0.41 % 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, 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 bought at an average cost of $12.24 per share, for a total transaction of $605,953.44. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 898,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,998,668.16. This trade represents a 5.83 % 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. Company 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.