Inspire Investing LLC Grows Position in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD)

Inspire Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) by 14.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 37,199 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 4,771 shares during the quarter. Inspire Investing LLC’s holdings in Heartland Express were worth $457,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Heartland Express Stock Down 0.9 %

HTLD stock opened at $11.53 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $12.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.73. The stock has a market cap of $911.46 million, a P/E ratio of -67.82 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. Heartland Express, Inc. has a twelve month low of $9.63 and a twelve month high of $15.56.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The transportation company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.06) by $0.02. The business had revenue of $274.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $275.23 million. Heartland Express had a negative net margin of 2.17% and a negative return on equity of 2.84%. The company’s revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.10 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Heartland Express, Inc. will post -0.21 EPS for the current year.

Heartland Express Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a dividend of $0.02 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio is presently -47.06%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on HTLD shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $10.00 price objective (down previously from $12.00) on shares of Heartland Express in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. UBS Group cut shares of Heartland Express from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective 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 report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Heartland Express from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.00.

Insider Activity

In other Heartland Express news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin bought 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $11.67 per share, for a total transaction of $583,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,196,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,965,699.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company 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.