HTLD vs. MRTN, WERN, ULH, PTSI, CVLG, ARCB, USX, SNDR, DHT, and VLRS
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), P.A.M. Transportation Services (PTSI), Covenant Logistics Group (CVLG), ArcBest (ARCB), U.S. Xpress Enterprises (USX), Schneider National (SNDR), DHT (DHT), and Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación (VLRS). These companies are all part of the "transportation" sector.
Heartland Express vs.
Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) and Marten Transport (NASDAQ:MRTN) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, community ranking, dividends, profitability and media sentiment.
Heartland Express has a beta of 0.58, meaning that its stock price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Marten Transport has a beta of 0.86, meaning that its stock price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Heartland Express presently has a consensus target price of $16.75, suggesting a potential upside of 4.43%. Marten Transport has a consensus target price of $25.00, suggesting a potential upside of 14.00%. Given Marten Transport's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Marten Transport is more favorable than Heartland Express.
54.8% of Heartland Express shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.3% of Marten Transport shares are owned by institutional investors. 39.6% of Heartland Express shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 22.9% of Marten Transport shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, Heartland Express had 1 more articles in the media than Marten Transport. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Heartland Express and 3 mentions for Marten Transport. Marten Transport's average media sentiment score of 1.40 beat Heartland Express' score of 1.13 indicating that Marten Transport is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Heartland Express has a net margin of 11.28% compared to Marten Transport's net margin of 8.26%. Heartland Express' return on equity of 15.31% beat Marten Transport's return on equity.
Heartland Express pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Marten Transport pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Heartland Express pays out 4.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Marten Transport pays out 18.5% 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.
Heartland Express received 88 more outperform votes than Marten Transport when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 55.11% of users gave Marten Transport an outperform vote while only 50.21% of users gave Heartland Express an outperform vote.
Heartland Express has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Marten Transport. 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.
Summary
Marten Transport beats Heartland Express on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
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.
Skip ChartMedia Sentiment Over Time
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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Heartland Express Competitors List
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