HTLD vs. ULH, CVLG, USX, CAR, WERN, MRTN, HTZ, FRPH, ODFL, and JBHT
Should you be buying Heartland Express stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Heartland Express include Universal Logistics (ULH), Covenant Logistics Group (CVLG), U.S. Xpress Enterprises (USX), Avis Budget Group (CAR), Werner Enterprises (WERN), Marten Transport (MRTN), Hertz Global (HTZ), FRP (FRPH), Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL), and J.B. Hunt Transport Services (JBHT).
Universal Logistics (NASDAQ:ULH) and Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, valuation, profitability, community ranking, institutional ownership and dividends.
Universal Logistics pays an annual dividend of $0.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Heartland Express pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Universal Logistics pays out 9.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Heartland Express pays out -47.1% 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.
25.5% of Universal Logistics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.5% of Heartland Express shares are owned by institutional investors. 73.4% of Universal Logistics shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 39.6% of Heartland Express shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Universal Logistics has a net margin of 7.02% compared to Universal Logistics' net margin of -2.17%. Heartland Express' return on equity of 22.78% beat Universal Logistics' return on equity.
In the previous week, Heartland Express had 6 more articles in the media than Universal Logistics. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for Heartland Express and 9 mentions for Universal Logistics. Universal Logistics' average media sentiment score of 0.46 beat Heartland Express' score of 0.31 indicating that Heartland Express is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Universal Logistics has higher revenue and earnings than Heartland Express. Heartland Express is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Universal Logistics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Heartland Express received 82 more outperform votes than Universal Logistics when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 59.60% of users gave Universal Logistics an outperform vote while only 48.82% of users gave Heartland Express an outperform vote.
Universal Logistics currently has a consensus price target of $46.00, indicating a potential upside of 6.78%. Heartland Express has a consensus price target of $12.80, indicating a potential downside of 2.88%. Given Heartland Express' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Universal Logistics is more favorable than Heartland Express.
Universal Logistics has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Heartland Express has a beta of 0.69, suggesting that its stock price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Universal Logistics beats Heartland Express on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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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.
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