Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) CEO Buys $144,476.16 in Stock

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) CEO Michael J. Gerdin purchased 14,109 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was bought at an average price of $10.24 per share, for a total transaction of $144,476.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 196,514 shares in the company, valued at $2,012,303.36. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Heartland Express Stock Performance

NASDAQ HTLD opened at $10.77 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $851.15 million, a P/E ratio of -63.35 and a beta of 0.66. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $11.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $12.61. Heartland Express, Inc. has a twelve month low of $9.63 and a twelve month high of $17.08. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The transportation company reported ($0.19) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12) by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $270.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $263.92 million. Heartland Express had a negative net margin of 1.13% and a negative return on equity of 1.50%. The business’s revenue was down 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.16 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Heartland Express, Inc. will post -0.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Heartland Express Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 25th. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio is -47.06%.

Institutional Trading of Heartland Express

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its position in shares of Heartland Express by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 26,561 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $379,000 after purchasing an additional 970 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Heartland Express by 115.0% in the third quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 394,367 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $5,793,000 after buying an additional 210,935 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates acquired a new position in Heartland Express in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $8,559,000. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Heartland Express by 7.5% in the third quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 23,644 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $347,000 after buying an additional 1,654 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in Heartland Express by 141.6% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 43,679 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $623,000 after buying an additional 25,597 shares during the period. 53.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of Heartland Express from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. 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. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Heartland Express from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price 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.