Heartland Express, Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.02 (NASDAQ:HTLD)

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, September 17th, Zacks reports. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 27th.

Heartland Express has a dividend payout ratio of 22.2% meaning 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 Performance

Shares of HTLD traded down $0.01 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $12.41. 15,883 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 351,186. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. Heartland Express has a fifty-two week low of $9.63 and a fifty-two week high of $15.70. The business’s 50 day moving average is $12.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $981.02 million, a P/E ratio of -73.06 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) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $274.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $275.23 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.10 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Heartland Express will post -0.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.