SG Americas Securities LLC Makes New $305,000 Investment in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD)

SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 24,807 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $305,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Heartland Express by 64.6% in the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,565 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its holdings in shares of Heartland Express by 266.3% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,729 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 1,984 shares in the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new position in Heartland Express in the 1st quarter worth approximately $62,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new position in Heartland Express during the 2nd quarter worth $166,000. Finally, Inspire Advisors LLC boosted its position in Heartland Express by 23.3% in the 1st quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 14,715 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $176,000 after buying an additional 2,779 shares during the last quarter. 53.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Heartland Express news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin purchased 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $11.67 per share, for a total transaction of $583,500.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,196,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,965,699.06. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 39.60% of the company’s stock.

Heartland Express Trading Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ:HTLD opened at $11.73 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $927.27 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -69.00 and a beta of 0.69. Heartland Express, Inc. has a 1-year low of $9.63 and a 1-year high of $15.20. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $12.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.73. 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 (NASDAQ:HTLD) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 analysts’ expectations of $275.23 million. Heartland Express had a negative net margin of 2.17% and a negative return on equity of 2.84%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.10 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Heartland Express, Inc. will post -0.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Heartland Express Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th were paid a dividend of $0.02 per share. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. Heartland Express’s payout ratio is presently -47.06%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on HTLD shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $10.00 price target (down previously from $12.00) on shares of Heartland Express in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. UBS Group downgraded shares of Heartland Express from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $15.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Heartland Express from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target 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 issued a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Heartland Express has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.00.

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.