Geode Capital Management LLC Reduces Stake in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD)

Geode Capital Management LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) by 0.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,118,648 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 7,214 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC owned approximately 1.43% of Heartland Express worth $12,554,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in Heartland Express during the fourth quarter worth approximately $75,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Heartland Express in the 4th quarter valued at $79,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in Heartland Express during the 4th quarter worth $105,000. Ieq Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Heartland Express in the fourth quarter valued at $148,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new position in Heartland Express in the fourth quarter valued at $171,000. 53.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Barclays cut their target price on Heartland Express from $11.00 to $9.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd.

Heartland Express Stock Performance

Shares of Heartland Express stock opened at $8.25 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $9.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $10.87. Heartland Express, Inc. has a 12 month low of $7.98 and a 12 month high of $13.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $647.87 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -22.30 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.17.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The transportation company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.02. Heartland Express had a negative net margin of 2.84% and a negative return on equity of 3.57%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Heartland Express, Inc. will post 0.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Heartland Express Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 4th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 25th were given a dividend of $0.02 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 25th. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.97%. Heartland Express’s payout ratio is -21.62%.

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.