Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) Issues Earnings Results

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The transportation company reported ($0.19) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12) by ($0.07), Briefing.com reports. Heartland Express had a negative net margin of 1.13% and a negative return on equity of 1.49%. The firm had revenue of $270.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $263.92 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.16 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 18.3% on a year-over-year basis.

Heartland Express Stock Down 2.2 %

NASDAQ HTLD opened at $10.10 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Heartland Express has a 1-year low of $10.00 and a 1-year high of $17.08. The company has a 50 day moving average of $11.60 and a 200-day moving average of $12.82. The company has a market cap of $798.20 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -59.41 and a beta of 0.62.

Heartland Express Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 26th were given a $0.02 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 25th. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.79%. Heartland Express’s payout ratio is -47.06%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays reduced their price target on Heartland Express from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Heartland Express from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com cut Heartland Express from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Heartland Express from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Heartland Express currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.50.

Insider Activity

In other Heartland Express news, major shareholder Ann S. Gerdin Revocable Trust purchased 14,933 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $12.39 per share, for a total transaction of $185,019.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 159,865 shares in the company, valued at $1,980,727.35. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 39.60% of the stock is owned by company 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.