Short Interest in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) Drops By 12.8%

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) saw a significant decline in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 994,600 shares, a decline of 12.8% from the January 15th total of 1,140,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 428,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days. Currently, 2.3% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Heartland Express

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Heartland Express in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $42,000. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in Heartland Express by 85.7% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 5,069 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $62,000 after buying an additional 2,340 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in Heartland Express in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $75,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Heartland Express in the fourth quarter worth $79,000. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of Heartland Express during the fourth quarter worth $105,000. 53.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Heartland Express Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of Heartland Express stock traded up $0.12 on Tuesday, reaching $11.51. The company had a trading volume of 328,051 shares, compared to its average volume of 445,486. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $11.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.08. Heartland Express has a 52-week low of $9.63 and a 52-week high of $13.67. The firm has a market cap of $903.11 million, a PE ratio of -31.09 and a beta of 0.76.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The transportation company reported ($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.02. Heartland Express had a negative return on equity of 3.57% and a negative net margin of 2.84%. Sell-side analysts predict that Heartland Express will post 0.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Heartland Express Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th were issued a dividend of $0.02 per share. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 27th. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -21.62%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on HTLD shares. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Heartland Express from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays upped their price target on Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th.

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.