Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) Short Interest Down 16.3% in February

Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) saw a large drop in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 854,200 shares, a drop of 16.3% from the February 13th total of 1,020,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 443,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.9 days. Currently, 1.9% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Heartland Express

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Heartland Express in the 4th quarter worth $42,000. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Heartland Express in the 4th quarter worth $75,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Heartland Express in the 4th quarter worth $79,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in shares of Heartland Express in the 4th quarter worth $105,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Heartland Express in the 3rd quarter worth $124,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 53.45% of the company’s stock.

Heartland Express Stock Performance

Heartland Express stock traded down $0.06 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $9.43. 413,389 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 385,721. Heartland Express has a 12-month low of $9.11 and a 12-month high of $13.67. 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 stock has a market cap of $740.73 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -25.49 and a beta of 0.80. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $10.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $11.44.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The transportation company reported ($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by $0.02. Heartland Express had a negative net margin of 2.84% and a negative return on equity of 3.57%. Equities research analysts predict that Heartland Express will post 0.17 EPS for the current year.

Heartland Express Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 4th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 25th will be paid a $0.02 dividend. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 25th. Heartland Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -21.62%.

Heartland Express Company Profile

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.