StockNews.com Downgrades Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) to Sell

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) was downgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report issued on Monday.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on HTLD. Barclays reduced their price objective on Heartland Express from $11.00 to $9.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Heartland Express from $10.00 to $9.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st.

Heartland Express Stock Down 1.6 %

NASDAQ HTLD opened at $7.60 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $8.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $10.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.08. The company has a market cap of $596.83 million, a P/E ratio of -20.54 and a beta of 1.04. Heartland Express has a one year low of $7.11 and a one year high of $13.67.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The transportation company reported ($0.18) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.13) by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $219.42 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $241.37 million. Heartland Express had a negative net margin of 2.84% and a negative return on equity of 3.57%. Heartland Express’s quarterly revenue was down 18.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.19) earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Heartland Express will post 0.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Heartland Express

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Heartland Express by 173.8% during the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,719 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 1,726 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Heartland Express in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $42,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in Heartland Express in the fourth quarter worth approximately $75,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Heartland Express during the 4th quarter worth approximately $79,000. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of Heartland Express in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $105,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 53.45% of the company’s stock.

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.