State Street Corp Lowers Position in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD)

State Street Corp decreased its holdings in shares of Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) by 0.7% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,822,330 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 12,213 shares during the period. State Street Corp’s holdings in Heartland Express were worth $22,414,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 64.6% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,565 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in Heartland Express by 85.7% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 5,069 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $62,000 after buying an additional 2,340 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Heartland Express during the 3rd quarter valued at $124,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new position in shares of Heartland Express in the 2nd quarter valued at $166,000. Finally, Paloma Partners Management Co purchased a new position in shares of Heartland Express in the 3rd quarter valued at $202,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 53.45% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HTLD has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group dropped 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. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.75.

Heartland Express Stock Performance

Shares of HTLD opened at $11.26 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The firm has a market cap of $883.88 million, a PE ratio of -38.83 and a beta of 0.75. Heartland Express, Inc. has a 12 month low of $9.63 and a 12 month high of $14.60. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $11.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $12.04.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The transportation company reported ($0.12) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by ($0.11). The business had revenue of $259.86 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $268.35 million. Heartland Express had a negative net margin of 2.11% and a negative return on equity of 2.70%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.14) earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Heartland Express, Inc. will post -0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Heartland Express Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be given a $0.02 dividend. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. Heartland Express’s payout ratio is currently -27.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Ann S. Gerdin Revocable Trust bought 49,506 shares of Heartland Express stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $12.24 per share, for a total transaction of $605,953.44. Following the purchase, the insider now directly owns 898,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,998,668.16. The trade was a 5.83 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Michael J. Gerdin purchased 35,960 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $11.97 per share, for a total transaction of $430,441.20. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 1,311,913 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,703,598.61. The trade was a 2.82 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders purchased 153,750 shares of company stock worth $1,786,918 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 39.60% of the company’s stock.

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.