Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) Upgraded by StockNews.com to Buy

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD – Get Rating) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Wednesday.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Stephens reduced their price objective on Heartland Express from $18.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Friday, April 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Heartland Express from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Heartland Express from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating and set a $16.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 15th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded Heartland Express from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Monday, January 3rd. Finally, Barclays downgraded Heartland Express from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $17.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Heartland Express has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $16.40.

HTLD opened at $13.70 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $14.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $15.48. The company has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.17 and a beta of 0.54. Heartland Express has a one year low of $12.78 and a one year high of $19.55.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 21st. The transportation company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $151.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $151.73 million. Heartland Express had a return on equity of 11.34% and a net margin of 13.58%. Heartland Express’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.17 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Heartland Express will post 0.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 5th. Investors of record on Friday, March 25th were given a dividend of $0.02 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 24th. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.69%.

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. increased its stake in Heartland Express by 28.1% during the fourth quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 3,256 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $55,000 after acquiring an additional 715 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in Heartland Express by 7.8% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 11,176 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $179,000 after acquiring an additional 812 shares during the last quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D increased its stake in Heartland Express by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 161,694 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,720,000 after acquiring an additional 861 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its stake in Heartland Express by 148.9% during the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,859 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 1,112 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co NY increased its stake in Heartland Express by 13.4% during the third quarter. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co NY now owns 12,026 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $193,000 after acquiring an additional 1,419 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 53.91% of the company’s stock.

About Heartland Express (Get Rating)

Heartland Express, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a short-to-medium haul truckload carrier in the United States and Canada. It primarily provides nationwide asset-based dry van truckload service for shippers from Washington to Florida and New England to California; and temperature-controlled truckload services.

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