Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) Declares $0.02 Quarterly Dividend

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be given a dividend of 0.02 per share by the transportation company on Wednesday, January 8th. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%.

Heartland Express has a dividend payout ratio of 72.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Heartland Express to earn $0.22 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 36.4%.

Heartland Express Stock Down 0.3 %

HTLD stock opened at $11.72 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $919.98 million, a PE ratio of -40.41 and a beta of 0.75. Heartland Express has a 12 month low of $9.63 and a 12 month high of $14.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 1.17. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $12.03.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

HTLD has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays increased their price target on Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. UBS Group decreased 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, October 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Heartland Express presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.75.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin bought 5,210 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $11.49 per share, for a total transaction of $59,862.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,265,002 shares in the company, valued at $14,534,872.98. This represents a 0.41 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Ann S. Gerdin Revocable Trust purchased 49,506 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $12.24 per share, for a total transaction of $605,953.44. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 898,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,998,668.16. The trade was a 5.83 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders acquired 153,750 shares of company stock worth $1,786,918 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 39.60% of the company’s stock.

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.