Critical Comparison: Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) vs. TFI International (NYSE:TFII)

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) and TFI International (NYSE:TFII) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Heartland Express and TFI International, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Heartland Express	3	3	1	0	1.71
TFI International	0	4	14	1	2.84

Heartland Express presently has a consensus target price of $13.00, suggesting a potential upside of 12.26%. TFI International has a consensus target price of $175.76, suggesting a potential upside of 41.99%. Given TFI International’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe TFI International is more favorable than Heartland Express.

Profitability

This table compares Heartland Express and TFI International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Heartland Express	-2.98%	-0.92%	-0.58%
TFI International	4.14%	14.87%	5.38%

Risk & Volatility

Heartland Express has a beta of 1.33, indicating that its share price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TFI International has a beta of 1.62, indicating that its share price is 62% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

53.4% of Heartland Express shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.3% of TFI International shares are owned by institutional investors. 41.6% of Heartland Express shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.5% of TFI International shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Heartland Express and TFI International”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Heartland Express	$805.71 million	1.11	-$52.45 million	($0.28)	-41.36
TFI International	$8.12 billion	1.25	$310.55 million	$4.07	30.42

TFI International has higher revenue and earnings than Heartland Express. Heartland Express is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than TFI International, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Heartland Express pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. TFI International pays an annual dividend of $1.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Heartland Express pays out -28.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. TFI International pays out 46.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Summary

TFI International beats Heartland Express on 15 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. The company offers its services under the Heartland Express and Millis Transfer brand names. It primarily serves retailers and manufacturers in consumer goods, appliances, food products, and automotive industries. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in North Liberty, Iowa.

About TFI International

TFI International Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides transportation and logistics services in the United States and Canada. The company operates through Package and Courier, Less-Than-Truckload (LTL), Truckload (TL), and Logistics segments. The Package and Courier segment engages in the pickup, transport, and delivery of items in North America. The LTL segment is involved in the pickup, consolidation, transportation, and delivery of smaller loads. The TL segment offers expedited transportation, flatbed, tank, container, and dedicated services. This segment also carries full loads directly from the customer to the destination using a closed van or specialized equipment. The Logistics segment provides asset-light logistics services, including brokerage, freight forwarding, and transportation management, as well as small package parcel delivery. As of December 31, 2023, it operates 11,455 trucks, 34,599 trailers, and 7,504 independent contractors. The company was formerly known as TransForce Inc. and changed its name to TFI International Inc. in December 2016. TFI International Inc. was founded in 1957 and is headquartered in Saint-Laurent, Canada.