Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) CEO Michael J. Gerdin Purchases 50,000 Shares of Stock

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) CEO Michael J. Gerdin purchased 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $11.67 per share, with a total value of $583,500.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,196,718 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,965,699.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Heartland Express Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of HTLD stock opened at $12.11 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $950.64 million, a PE ratio of -71.24 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $12.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $11.76. Heartland Express, Inc. has a 1 year low of $9.63 and a 1 year high of $16.29.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The transportation company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.06) by $0.02. Heartland Express had a negative return on equity of 2.84% and a negative net margin of 2.17%. The company had revenue of $274.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $275.23 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.10 earnings per share. Heartland Express’s revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Heartland Express, Inc. will post -0.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Heartland Express

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,172,549 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $45,241,000 after purchasing an additional 264,313 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Heartland Express by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 704,437 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $10,045,000 after buying an additional 31,045 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Heartland Express by 14.6% in the 1st quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 666,675 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $7,960,000 after acquiring an additional 84,739 shares in the last quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Heartland Express during the second quarter valued at about $5,584,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its position in shares of Heartland Express by 243.2% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 241,755 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,981,000 after buying an additional 171,319 shares during the last quarter. 53.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com raised Heartland Express from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group cut Heartland Express from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $15.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $10.00 target price (down from $12.00) on shares of Heartland Express in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Heartland Express has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $12.00.

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.