Texas Permanent School Fund Corp Decreases Position in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD)

Texas Permanent School Fund Corp decreased its holdings in shares of Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) by 14.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 34,311 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 5,810 shares during the quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp’s holdings in Heartland Express were worth $423,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HTLD. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in 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 worth $45,241,000 after purchasing an additional 264,313 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in Heartland Express by 132.8% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 225,713 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,695,000 after purchasing an additional 128,758 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Heartland Express by 14.6% during the first quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 666,675 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $7,960,000 after purchasing an additional 84,739 shares during the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP lifted its stake in Heartland Express by 292.4% in the first quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 108,999 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,301,000 after buying an additional 81,220 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System lifted its stake in Heartland Express by 84.0% in the first 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 buying an additional 62,172 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 53.45% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Heartland Express news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin acquired 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 11th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $11.67 per share, with a total value of $583,500.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,196,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,965,699.06. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 39.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HTLD has been the subject of a number of research reports. StockNews.com upgraded Heartland Express from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. 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 Thursday, August 1st. UBS Group cut Heartland Express from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $15.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $10.00 price objective (down previously from $12.00) on shares of Heartland Express in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Two investment 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, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.00.

Heartland Express Price Performance

Heartland Express stock opened at $12.00 on Friday. Heartland Express, Inc. has a 12 month low of $9.63 and a 12 month high of $15.65. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $12.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $948.61 million, a PE ratio of -70.59 and a beta of 0.69.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The transportation company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $274.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $275.23 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.10 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Heartland Express, Inc. will post -0.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Heartland Express Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 7th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.02 per share. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio is presently -47.06%.

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.