Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) Short Interest Down 16.3% in February

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 854,200 shares, a decrease of 16.3% from the February 13th total of 1,020,000 shares. Currently, 1.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 443,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.9 days.

Heartland Express Price Performance

Shares of HTLD stock traded down $0.11 on Tuesday, reaching $9.43. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 100,539 shares, compared to its average volume of 384,106. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $10.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.47. Heartland Express has a 1 year low of $9.11 and a 1 year high of $13.67. The company has a market capitalization of $740.33 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -25.47 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The transportation company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.02. Heartland Express had a negative net margin of 2.84% and a negative return on equity of 3.57%. Analysts forecast that Heartland Express will post 0.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Heartland Express Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 4th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 25th will be paid a $0.02 dividend. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 25th. Heartland Express’s payout ratio is -21.62%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Heartland Express

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Heartland Express in the fourth quarter worth $42,000. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Heartland Express in the 4th quarter worth about $75,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Heartland Express during the 4th quarter worth about $79,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new position in Heartland Express during the 4th quarter valued at about $105,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Heartland Express in the 3rd quarter worth about $124,000. Institutional investors 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.