Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) CEO Acquires $430,441.20 in Stock

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) CEO Michael J. Gerdin acquired 35,960 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $11.97 per share, for a total transaction of $430,441.20. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 1,311,913 shares in the company, valued at $15,703,598.61. This represents a 2.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Heartland Express Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of HTLD stock opened at $12.42 on Friday. Heartland Express, Inc. has a 1-year low of $9.63 and a 1-year 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 1.23. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $11.75 and a 200-day moving average of $11.85.

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

Institutional Trading of Heartland Express

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HTLD. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Heartland Express during the first quarter valued at about $673,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System grew its position in shares of Heartland Express by 84.0% during the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 136,195 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,626,000 after acquiring an additional 62,172 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Heartland Express by 14.6% during the 1st quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 666,675 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $7,960,000 after acquiring an additional 84,739 shares during the period. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Heartland Express in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $5,584,000. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in Heartland Express by 82.5% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 142,774 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,760,000 after purchasing an additional 64,522 shares during the last quarter. 53.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on HTLD shares. Barclays increased their target price on Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group dropped their price objective 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. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Heartland Express from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Heartland Express has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.75.

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.