HTLD vs. MRTN, WERN, ULH, CVLG, PTSI, YELLQ, GNK, ATSG, 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), P.A.M. Transportation Services (PTSI), Yellow (YELLQ), Genco Shipping & Trading (GNK), Air Transport Services Group (ATSG), 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 superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, community ranking, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, media sentiment, profitability, earnings and risk.
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 27.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Heartland Express pays out 44.4% 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. Marten Transport is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Marten Transport has a beta of 0.79, indicating that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Heartland Express has a beta of 0.62, indicating that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500.
69.1% of Marten Transport shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.5% of Heartland Express shares are owned by institutional investors. 22.9% of Marten Transport shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 39.8% of Heartland Express shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
In the previous week, Marten Transport and Marten Transport both had 8 articles in the media. Heartland Express' average media sentiment score of 0.58 beat Marten Transport's score of 0.14 indicating that Marten Transport is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Marten Transport has a net margin of 6.22% compared to Marten Transport's net margin of 1.22%. Heartland Express' return on equity of 9.48% beat Marten Transport's return on equity.
Marten Transport has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Heartland Express. Marten Transport is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Heartland Express, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Heartland Express received 86 more outperform votes than Marten Transport when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 54.96% of users gave Marten Transport an outperform vote while only 49.23% of users gave Heartland Express an outperform vote.
Marten Transport currently has a consensus price target of $26.00, suggesting a potential upside of 52.85%. Heartland Express has a consensus price target of $13.75, suggesting a potential upside of 28.75%. Given Heartland Express' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Marten Transport is more favorable than Heartland Express.
Summary
Marten Transport beats Heartland Express on 15 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get Heartland Express News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for HTLD and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
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.
Heartland Express Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
