HTLD vs. MRTN, WERN, ULH, CVLG, YELLQ, PTSI, ATSG, DESP, CYRX, and NAT
Should you be buying Heartland Express stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Heartland Express include Marten Transport (MRTN), Werner Enterprises (WERN), Universal Logistics (ULH), Covenant Logistics Group (CVLG), Yellow (YELLQ), P.A.M. Transportation Services (PTSI), Air Transport Services Group (ATSG), Despegar.com (DESP), Cryoport (CYRX), and Nordic American Tankers (NAT). These companies are all part of the "transportation" sector.
Marten Transport (NASDAQ:MRTN) and Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, media sentiment, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership, community ranking and risk.
In the previous week, Heartland Express had 23 more articles in the media than Marten Transport. MarketBeat recorded 24 mentions for Heartland Express and 1 mentions for Marten Transport. Marten Transport's average media sentiment score of 0.49 beat Heartland Express' score of 0.00 indicating that Heartland Express is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Marten Transport has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Heartland Express. Heartland Express is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Marten Transport, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Marten Transport has a beta of 0.79, suggesting that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Heartland Express has a beta of 0.66, suggesting that its share price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Marten Transport pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Heartland Express pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Marten Transport pays out 33.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Heartland Express pays out -47.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.
69.1% of Marten Transport shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.5% of Heartland Express shares are held by institutional investors. 22.9% of Marten Transport shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 39.6% of Heartland Express shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Heartland Express received 85 more outperform votes than Marten Transport when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 55.05% of users gave Marten Transport an outperform vote while only 49.03% of users gave Heartland Express an outperform vote.
Marten Transport has a net margin of 5.31% compared to Marten Transport's net margin of -1.13%. Heartland Express' return on equity of 7.65% beat Marten Transport's return on equity.
Marten Transport currently has a consensus target price of $23.00, suggesting a potential upside of 34.19%. Heartland Express has a consensus target price of $13.25, suggesting a potential upside of 23.49%. Given Heartland Express' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Marten Transport is more favorable than Heartland Express.
Summary
Marten Transport beats Heartland Express on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding HTLD and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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