Dark Forest Capital Management LP Makes New $487,000 Investment in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD)

Dark Forest Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 43,363 shares of the transportation company's stock, valued at approximately $487,000. Dark Forest Capital Management LP owned approximately 0.06% of Heartland Express as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Heartland Express in the fourth quarter valued at $42,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in Heartland Express in the 4th quarter valued at about $75,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Heartland Express during the 4th quarter worth about $79,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of Heartland Express during the fourth quarter worth about $105,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Heartland Express in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $134,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 53.45% of the company's stock.

Heartland Express Trading Up 5.9 %

Shares of HTLD traded up $0.44 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $7.81. The stock had a trading volume of 261,964 shares, compared to its average volume of 408,589. Heartland Express, Inc. has a 12-month low of $7.11 and a 12-month high of $13.67. The firm has a market cap of $612.93 million, a P/E ratio of -21.11 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.08. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $9.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $10.68.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The transportation company reported ($0.18) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $219.42 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $241.37 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.19) earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 18.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Heartland Express, Inc. will post 0.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Heartland Express Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 4th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 25th were issued a dividend of $0.02 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 25th. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.02%. Heartland Express's payout ratio is -22.22%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Heartland Express from $10.00 to $9.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Barclays lowered 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.

Heartland Express Company 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.