Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume After Dividend Announcement

Shares of Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) saw an uptick in trading volume on Friday following a dividend announcement from the company. 545,512 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 42% from the previous session’s volume of 384,530 shares.The stock last traded at $9.32 and had previously closed at $9.20.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Friday, April 4th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 25th will be issued a $0.02 dividend. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.85%. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -21.62%.

Heartland Express Price Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average of $10.86 and a 200 day moving average of $11.49. The company has a market capitalization of $741.51 million, a P/E ratio of -25.51 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The transportation company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.02. Heartland Express had a negative net margin of 2.84% and a negative return on equity of 3.57%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Heartland Express, Inc. will post 0.17 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Heartland Express by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,506,139 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $39,338,000 after buying an additional 123,399 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 898,289 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $10,079,000 after purchasing an additional 45,732 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 730,368 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $8,195,000 after purchasing an additional 63,493 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in Heartland Express by 29.3% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 696,823 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $7,818,000 after acquiring an additional 157,892 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Heartland Express by 93.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 591,755 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $6,639,000 after acquiring an additional 285,838 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 53.45% 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.