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

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

Heartland Express has a payout ratio of 72.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research 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 %

Shares of HTLD stock traded down $0.04 on Tuesday, hitting $11.72. The stock had a trading volume of 334,338 shares, compared to its average volume of 354,411. Heartland Express has a 12-month low of $9.63 and a 12-month high of $14.60. The business has a 50 day moving average of $11.88 and a 200 day moving average of $12.03. The stock has a market cap of $919.98 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -40.41 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 1.17.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The transportation company reported ($0.12) earnings per share (EPS) 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 analysts’ expectations of $268.35 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.14) EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Heartland Express will post -0.38 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on HTLD shares. UBS Group lowered their target price on Heartland Express from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $11.75.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin purchased 63,074 shares of Heartland Express stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $10.95 per share, for a total transaction of $690,660.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,259,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,794,722.40. This trade represents a 5.27 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Ann S. Gerdin Revocable Trust purchased 49,506 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $12.24 per share, for a total transaction of $605,953.44. Following the acquisition, the insider now owns 898,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,998,668.16. This trade represents a 5.83 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders purchased 153,750 shares of company stock worth $1,786,918. 39.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.