Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) Stock Price Passes Above 200-Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD)’s share price passed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Wednesday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $10.77 and traded as high as $15.59. Heartland Express shares last traded at $15.18, with a volume of 554,072 shares trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HTLD has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on Heartland Express from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Heartland Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, May 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Heartland Express in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Heartland Express from $12.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Heartland Express from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Heartland Express currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $12.20.

Heartland Express Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $12.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $10.77. The company has a market capitalization of $1.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -27.11 and a beta of 1.31.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 24th. The transportation company reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.13) by $0.07. Heartland Express had a negative return on equity of 3.70% and a negative net margin of 5.69%.The company had revenue of $153.81 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $177.30 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.18) earnings per share. Heartland Express’s quarterly revenue was down 19.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Heartland Express, Inc. will post 0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Heartland Express

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Jump Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of Heartland Express by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 12,252 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $111,000 after buying an additional 870 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Heartland Express by 4.4% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 27,708 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $255,000 after buying an additional 1,170 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Heartland Express by 76.7% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,905 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 1,261 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Heartland Express by 1.0% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 126,736 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,095,000 after buying an additional 1,262 shares during the period. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC boosted its position in shares of Heartland Express by 11.7% during the second quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 14,504 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $125,000 after buying an additional 1,517 shares during the period. 53.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Heartland Express Company Profile

Heartland Express, Inc (NASDAQ: HTLD) is a publicly traded truckload carrier headquartered in North Liberty, Iowa. The company specializes in full truckload transportation, offering dry-van services that connect shippers with customers across the continental United States. Its primary focus is on over-the-road freight movements, serving industries such as manufacturing, retail, and consumer goods.

Founded in 1978 as Heartland Motor Freight, the company has grown from a regional carrier into one of the larger U.S.