Michael J. Gerdin Purchases 66,000 Shares of Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) Stock

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) CEO Michael J. Gerdin acquired 66,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $10.45 per share, with a total value of $689,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,594 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,419,307.30. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Heartland Express Trading Up 4.6 %

Shares of HTLD opened at $10.40 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $12.68. The company has a market capitalization of $821.91 million, a P/E ratio of -61.18 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.37. Heartland Express, Inc. has a 1-year low of $9.63 and a 1-year high of $17.08.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The transportation company reported ($0.19) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $270.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $263.92 million. Heartland Express had a negative return on equity of 1.50% and a negative net margin of 1.13%. The company’s revenue was down 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.16 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Heartland Express, Inc. will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Heartland Express Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 74.1% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 23,218 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $277,000 after acquiring an additional 9,884 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 0.8% during the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 605,175 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $7,226,000 after acquiring an additional 4,955 shares in the last quarter. Cardinal Capital Management raised its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 43.0% during the first quarter. Cardinal Capital Management now owns 58,015 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $694,000 after acquiring an additional 17,457 shares in the last quarter. Dean Capital Management increased its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 14.3% in the fourth quarter. Dean Capital Management now owns 150,014 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,139,000 after buying an additional 18,712 shares during the period. Finally, Trexquant Investment LP bought a new stake in Heartland Express during the 4th quarter valued at $640,000. 53.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on HTLD shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Heartland Express from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Heartland Express from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Heartland Express from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Heartland Express from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Heartland Express presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.25.

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.