Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) Stock Holdings Decreased by Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C

Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C decreased its position in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) by 83.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 11,547 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 56,281 shares during the period. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C’s holdings in Heartland Express were worth $130,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Heartland Express during the fourth quarter valued at $42,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Heartland Express in the fourth quarter worth approximately $75,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Heartland Express during the fourth quarter worth approximately $79,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in Heartland Express in the 4th quarter worth approximately $105,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Heartland Express during the 4th quarter valued at $134,000. 53.45% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays reduced their price objective on Heartland Express from $11.00 to $9.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com cut Heartland Express from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Heartland Express from $10.00 to $9.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st.

Heartland Express Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ HTLD opened at $7.55 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $593.06 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -20.41 and a beta of 1.04. Heartland Express, Inc. has a one year low of $7.11 and a one year high of $13.67. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $8.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of $10.57. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The transportation company reported ($0.18) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.13) by ($0.05). Heartland Express had a negative net margin of 2.84% and a negative return on equity of 3.57%. The business had revenue of $219.42 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $241.37 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.19) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 18.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Heartland Express, Inc. will post 0.17 EPS for the current year.

Heartland Express Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 4th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 25th were issued a dividend of $0.02 per share. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.06%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 25th. Heartland Express’s payout ratio is -22.22%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin purchased 148,272 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $7.85 per share, for a total transaction of $1,163,935.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,461,868 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,475,663.80. The trade was a 11.29 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 40.70% 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.