Heartland Express, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.02 (NASDAQ:HTLD)

Key Points

• Heartland Express, Inc. declared a quarterly dividend of $0.02 per share, with payment scheduled for October 3rd to stockholders of record on September 23rd.
• The company's dividend payout ratio stands at 22.9%, suggesting that earnings sufficiently cover the dividend, with forecasts expecting future earnings to support an annual dividend of $0.08.
• Heartland Express reported a net loss of ($0.14) earnings per share for the last quarter, missing estimates, and revenue decreased by 23.4% year-over-year to $210.39 million.

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 7th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 23rd will be paid a dividend of 0.02 per share by the transportation company on Friday, October 3rd. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 23rd.

Heartland Express has a payout ratio of 22.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Heartland Express to earn $0.77 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 10.4%.

Heartland Express Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of Heartland Express stock traded up $0.13 on Wednesday, hitting $8.75. 185,029 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 564,690. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $8.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $8.68. The company has a market cap of $677.11 million, a PE ratio of -18.99 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. Heartland Express has a 52 week low of $7.11 and a 52 week high of $12.85.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.