Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) Short Interest Update

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) was the target of a large growth in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,450,000 shares, a growth of 10.7% from the August 31st total of 1,310,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 359,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.0 days. Approximately 3.3% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin acquired 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 11th. The shares were bought at an average price of $11.67 per share, with a total value of $583,500.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 1,196,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,965,699.06. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 39.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Heartland Express

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Heartland Express by 64.6% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,565 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Heartland Express by 266.3% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,729 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 1,984 shares during the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in Heartland Express in the first quarter valued at $62,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new stake in Heartland Express during the second quarter valued at about $166,000. Finally, Inspire Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Heartland Express by 23.3% in the 1st quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 14,715 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $176,000 after purchasing an additional 2,779 shares during the period. 53.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on HTLD shares. UBS Group lowered Heartland Express from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $15.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $10.00 target price (down from $12.00) on shares of Heartland Express in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Heartland Express from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.00.

Heartland Express Stock Up 1.7 %

Heartland Express stock opened at $12.28 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $12.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $11.73. Heartland Express has a 1-year low of $9.63 and a 1-year high of $15.56. The company has a market cap of $970.75 million, a PE ratio of -72.24 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.23.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The transportation company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.06) by $0.02. Heartland Express had a negative return on equity of 2.84% and a negative net margin of 2.17%. The business had revenue of $274.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $275.23 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.10 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Heartland Express will post -0.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Heartland Express Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be issued a $0.02 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -47.06%.

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.