Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. Sells 48,805 Shares of Heartland Express, Inc. $HTLD

Key Points

• Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. sold 48,805 shares of Heartland Express, reducing its stake by 60.6% to a total of 31,696 shares, valued at approximately $274,000.
• Analyst reports reflect a mixed outlook for Heartland Express, with upgrades and reductions in target prices leading to an average rating of "Reduce" and an average target price of $9.70.
• Heartland Express recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.02 per share, with an annualized yield of 0.9%, despite having a negative net margin and quarterly revenue decrease of 23.4% year-over-year.

Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. trimmed its stake in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD - Free Report) by 60.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 31,696 shares of the transportation company's stock after selling 48,805 shares during the period. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc.'s holdings in Heartland Express were worth $274,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 26,538 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $298,000 after acquiring an additional 926 shares in the last quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC now owns 66,459 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $613,000 after acquiring an additional 1,257 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 173.8% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,719 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 1,726 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 317.0% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,236 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $300,000 after acquiring an additional 2,460 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 10.0% in the 1st quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 43,354 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $400,000 after acquiring an additional 3,959 shares in the last quarter. 53.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on HTLD. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Heartland Express from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Heartland Express from $9.00 to $8.50 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 28th. Baird R W raised Heartland Express to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 1st. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Heartland Express from $9.00 to $8.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Heartland Express has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and an average price target of $9.70.

Heartland Express Price Performance

Heartland Express stock traded down $0.11 on Friday, reaching $8.39. The company's stock had a trading volume of 208,199 shares, compared to its average volume of 567,450. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95. The company has a market cap of $649.70 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -18.25 and a beta of 1.09. The business's fifty day moving average price is $8.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $8.67. Heartland Express, Inc. has a twelve month low of $7.11 and a twelve month high of $12.85.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The transportation company reported ($0.14) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.08) by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $210.39 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $229.12 million. Heartland Express had a negative return on equity of 4.42% and a negative net margin of 3.85%.Heartland Express's revenue for the quarter was down 23.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.04) EPS. Equities analysts expect that Heartland Express, Inc. will post 0.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Heartland Express Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.02 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Heartland Express's payout ratio is presently -17.39%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Heartland Express

In other news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin bought 24,798 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $8.19 per share, for a total transaction of $203,095.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,491,868 shares in the company, valued at $12,218,398.92. The trade was a 1.69% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders acquired a total of 30,000 shares of company stock worth $245,752 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 40.70% of the company's stock.

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.