Lesa Sroufe & Co Has $1.57 Million Stock Holdings in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD)

Lesa Sroufe & Co decreased its position in shares of Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 110,227 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 3,577 shares during the period. Heartland Express comprises 1.6% of Lesa Sroufe & Co’s holdings, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Lesa Sroufe & Co owned approximately 0.14% of Heartland Express worth $1,572,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Graham Capital Management L.P. bought a new position in Heartland Express in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $244,000. Dark Forest Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Heartland Express during the third quarter valued at $258,000. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 133.2% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 18,082 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $266,000 after acquiring an additional 10,327 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in shares of Heartland Express during the fourth quarter valued at $327,000. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Heartland Express by 7.5% during the third quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 23,644 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $347,000 after acquiring an additional 1,654 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 53.45% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on HTLD shares. StockNews.com raised shares of Heartland Express from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Heartland Express from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Heartland Express from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Heartland Express from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $13.75.

Insider Activity

In other Heartland Express news, major shareholder Ann S. Gerdin Revocable Trust acquired 14,933 shares of Heartland Express stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $12.39 per share, for a total transaction of $185,019.87. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 159,865 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,980,727.35. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 39.80% of the company’s stock.

Heartland Express Trading Up 1.5 %

NASDAQ:HTLD opened at $10.43 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $824.28 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.94 and a beta of 0.62. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $12.89. Heartland Express, Inc. has a 12 month low of $10.00 and a 12 month high of $17.08.

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The transportation company reported ($0.19) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12) by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $270.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $263.92 million. Heartland Express had a return on equity of 1.71% and a net margin of 1.22%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.16 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Heartland Express, Inc. will post -0.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Heartland Express Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 26th were issued a $0.02 dividend. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 25th. Heartland Express’s payout ratio is 44.44%.

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.