New York State Teachers Retirement System Trims Stake in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD)

New York State Teachers Retirement System reduced its stake in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) by 8.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 82,134 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 7,395 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.10% of Heartland Express worth $1,009,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 64.6% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,565 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 1,007 shares during the period. CWM LLC increased its holdings in Heartland Express by 266.3% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,729 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 1,984 shares in the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new stake in Heartland Express during the 1st quarter worth approximately $62,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new position in Heartland Express during the second quarter valued at approximately $166,000. Finally, Inspire Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Heartland Express by 23.3% in the first quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 14,715 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $176,000 after purchasing an additional 2,779 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 53.45% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on HTLD. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Heartland Express from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Heartland Express from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Heartland Express from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.50.

Heartland Express Stock Performance

HTLD opened at $11.99 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $941.22 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -41.34 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a fifty day moving average of $11.73 and a 200 day moving average of $11.80. Heartland Express, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $9.63 and a fifty-two week high of $14.60.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The transportation company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $268.35 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.14) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Heartland Express, Inc. will post -0.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Heartland Express

In other news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin acquired 5,210 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $11.49 per share, with a total value of $59,862.90. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,265,002 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,534,872.98. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin purchased 63,074 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was bought at an average price of $10.95 per share, for a total transaction of $690,660.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,259,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,794,722.40. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael J. Gerdin acquired 5,210 shares of Heartland Express stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $11.49 per share, for a total transaction of $59,862.90. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,265,002 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,534,872.98. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought 118,284 shares of company stock worth $1,334,023 in the last quarter. 39.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Heartland Express 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.