Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) Announces Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.07 EPS

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

Heartland Express Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ HTLD opened at $10.33 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $12.86. Heartland Express has a twelve month low of $10.00 and a twelve month high of $17.08.

Heartland Express Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 26th were given a dividend of $0.02 per share. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 25th. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -47.06%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HTLD has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Heartland Express from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Heartland Express from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Heartland Express from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Heartland Express from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $13.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Heartland Express

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