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

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) was the target of a large drop in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 854,200 shares, a drop of 16.3% from the February 13th total of 1,020,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 443,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.9 days. Currently, 1.9% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Heartland Express

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Heartland Express during the fourth quarter worth approximately $42,000. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in Heartland Express in the 4th quarter valued at $75,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Heartland Express in the 4th quarter worth $79,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new position in shares of Heartland Express during the 4th quarter worth about $105,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Heartland Express during the third quarter valued at about $124,000. Institutional investors own 53.45% of the company’s stock.

Heartland Express Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of HTLD stock traded down $0.02 on Thursday, hitting $9.42. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 25,834 shares, compared to its average volume of 384,618. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $739.55 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -25.40 and a beta of 0.80. Heartland Express has a fifty-two week low of $9.11 and a fifty-two week high of $13.67. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $10.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.44.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The transportation company reported ($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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%. Research analysts anticipate that Heartland Express will post 0.17 EPS for the current year.

Heartland Express Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 4th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.02 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 25th. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.85%. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -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.