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

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) CEO Michael J. Gerdin bought 66,000 shares of Heartland Express 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 purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,594 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,419,307.30. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Heartland Express Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ HTLD traded down $0.02 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $9.94. 1,323,506 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 340,565. The company has a market capitalization of $785.56 million, a P/E ratio of -58.47 and a beta of 0.62. Heartland Express, Inc. has a 52-week low of $9.63 and a 52-week high of $17.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $11.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $12.69.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The transportation company reported ($0.19) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12) by ($0.07). The firm 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 business’s quarterly revenue was down 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.16 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Heartland Express, Inc. will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Heartland Express Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 26th were issued a dividend of $0.02 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 25th. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -47.06%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Heartland Express

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of HTLD. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Heartland Express by 99.2% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,224,494 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $17,988,000 after acquiring an additional 609,769 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates acquired a new stake in shares of Heartland Express in the fourth quarter worth approximately $8,559,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Heartland Express by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,172,549 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $45,241,000 after acquiring an additional 264,313 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 worth $5,793,000 after acquiring an additional 210,935 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Heartland Express in the third quarter worth approximately $1,662,000. 53.45% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Heartland Express Company Profile

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.