Heartland Express, Inc. (HTLD) To Go Ex-Dividend on September 27th

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, September 17th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be paid a dividend of 0.02 per share by the transportation company on Monday, October 7th. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th.

Heartland Express has a payout ratio of 22.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Heartland Express to earn $0.48 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 16.7%.

Heartland Express Stock Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ HTLD opened at $12.38 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $12.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The firm has a market cap of $978.65 million, a PE ratio of -72.82 and a beta of 0.69. Heartland Express has a 52 week low of $9.63 and a 52 week high of $15.70.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Transactions at Heartland Express

In other news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin acquired 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 11th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $11.67 per share, for a total transaction of $583,500.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 1,196,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,965,699.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 39.60% of the company’s stock.

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.