Dean Capital Management Decreases Holdings in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD)

Dean Capital Management lowered its stake in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) by 59.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 87,637 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 128,244 shares during the period. Dean Capital Management owned approximately 0.11% of Heartland Express worth $983,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Heartland Express by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,506,139 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $39,338,000 after purchasing an additional 123,399 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Heartland Express by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 898,289 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $10,079,000 after purchasing an additional 45,732 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Heartland Express by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 730,368 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $8,195,000 after buying an additional 63,493 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 29.3% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 696,823 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $7,818,000 after buying an additional 157,892 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Heartland Express by 93.4% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 591,755 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $6,639,000 after acquiring an additional 285,838 shares in the last quarter. 53.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on HTLD. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Heartland Express from $10.00 to $9.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays decreased their price objective on Heartland Express from $11.00 to $9.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Heartland Express from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Michael J. Gerdin acquired 148,272 shares of Heartland Express stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $7.85 per share, for a total transaction of $1,163,935.20. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,461,868 shares in the company, valued at $11,475,663.80. This trade represents a 11.29 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 40.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Heartland Express Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:HTLD opened at $7.55 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $8.81 and its 200 day moving average is $10.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.17. Heartland Express, Inc. has a 1 year low of $7.11 and a 1 year high of $13.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $593.06 million, a P/E ratio of -20.41 and a beta of 1.04.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The transportation company reported ($0.18) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.13) by ($0.05). Heartland Express had a negative net margin of 2.84% and a negative return on equity of 3.57%. The company had revenue of $219.42 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $241.37 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.19) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 18.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict 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 was paid on Friday, April 4th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 25th were given a $0.02 dividend. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 25th. Heartland Express’s payout ratio is -22.22%.

About Heartland Express

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.