Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) Given New $11.00 Price Target at Barclays

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) had its price target hoisted by Barclays from $10.00 to $11.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an underweight rating on the transportation company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Heartland Express from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com upgraded 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 given a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.75.

Heartland Express Price Performance

NASDAQ HTLD opened at $12.20 on Wednesday. Heartland Express has a one year low of $9.63 and a one year high of $14.60. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The transportation company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by ($0.11). Heartland Express had a negative return on equity of 2.70% and a negative net margin of 2.11%. The company had revenue of $259.86 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $268.35 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.14) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Heartland Express will post -0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin bought 63,074 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $10.95 per share, for a total transaction of $690,660.30. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,259,792 shares in the company, valued at $13,794,722.40. This represents a 5.27 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have purchased 154,244 shares of company stock worth $1,764,464 in the last three months. 39.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Heartland Express

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Heartland Express by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 852,557 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $10,469,000 after purchasing an additional 22,448 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its position in Heartland Express by 14.6% during the first quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 666,675 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $7,960,000 after buying an additional 84,739 shares during the period. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in Heartland Express in the 3rd quarter worth about $6,634,000. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Heartland Express during the 2nd quarter worth about $5,584,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in Heartland Express by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 256,171 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $3,146,000 after acquiring an additional 12,998 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 53.45% of the company’s stock.

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.