Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) Shares Sold by Rhumbline Advisers

Rhumbline Advisers lowered its stake in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) by 4.4% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 137,561 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 6,369 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers’ holdings in Heartland Express were worth $1,696,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in Heartland Express by 132.8% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 225,713 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $2,695,000 after acquiring an additional 128,758 shares during the period. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Heartland Express in the 1st quarter valued at $673,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System grew its stake in Heartland Express by 84.0% in the 1st 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 acquiring an additional 62,172 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP grew its stake in Heartland Express by 292.4% in the 1st quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 108,999 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,301,000 after acquiring an additional 81,220 shares during the period. Finally, 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 valued at $7,960,000 after acquiring an additional 84,739 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 53.45% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Heartland Express Stock Down 3.9 %

HTLD stock opened at $12.00 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $12.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $11.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.23. Heartland Express, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $9.63 and a fifty-two week high of $15.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $948.61 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -70.59 and a beta of 0.69.

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

Heartland Express Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin purchased 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $11.67 per share, for a total transaction of $583,500.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,196,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,965,699.06. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate 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.