How to buy Heartland Express stock | 19.33

Heartland Express, Inc is a trucking business based in the US. Heartland Express shares (HTLD) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Heartland Express employs 4,050 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$656.7 million.

How to buy shares in Heartland Express

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Heartland Express. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: HTLD. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Heartland Express reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$19.33, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Heartland Express, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Heartland Express. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

How has coronavirus impacted Heartland Express's share price?

Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, Heartland Express's share price has had significant negative movement.

Its last market close was USD$19.33, which is 3.20% down on its pre-crash value of USD$19.97 and 23.51% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the shares fell as low as USD$15.65.

If you had bought USD$1,000 worth of Heartland Express shares at the start of February 2020, those shares would have been worth USD$870.81 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth USD$1,014.63.

Heartland Express share price

Use our graph to track the performance of HTLD stocks over time.

Heartland Express shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-10-20.

Latest market close	USD$19.33
52-week range	USD$15.65 - USD$22.75
50-day moving average	USD$19.6403
200-day moving average	USD$20.1925
Wall St. target price	USD$21.56
PE ratio	25.0741
Dividend yield	USD$0.08 (0.41%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$0.807

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Is it a good time to buy Heartland Express stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Heartland Express, Inc by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Heartland Express price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $19.33 from 2020-11-16

1 week (2020-11-18)	0.78%
1 month (2020-10-26)	2.17%
3 months (2020-08-25)	-6.98%
6 months (2020-05-22)	-6.12%

1 year (2019-11-25)	-9.21%
2 years (2018-11-23)	-2.23%
3 years (2017-11-24)	-9.04%
5 years (2015-11-25)	-0.31%

Is Heartland Express under- or over-valued?

Valuing Heartland Express stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Heartland Express's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Heartland Express's P/E ratio

Heartland Express's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 25x. In other words, Heartland Express shares trade at around 25x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

Heartland Express's PEG ratio

Heartland Express's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 2.23. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Heartland Express's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Heartland Express's EBITDA

Heartland Express's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$183.5 million.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Heartland Express's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Heartland Express financials

Revenue TTM	USD$656.7 million
Operating margin TTM	10.92%
Gross profit TTM	USD$217.4 million
Return on assets TTM	4.7%
Return on equity TTM	9.45%
Profit margin	10.04%
Book value	$8.869
Market capitalisation	USD$1.5 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Heartland Express shares

There are currently 1.6 million Heartland Express shares held short by investors – that's known as Heartland Express's "short interest". This figure is 90.1% up from 860,697 last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Heartland Express shares can be evaluated.

Heartland Express's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Heartland Express's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Heartland Express shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Heartland Express shares traded daily (recently around 439907.79569892). Heartland Express's SIR currently stands at 3.72. In other words for every 100,000 Heartland Express shares traded daily on the market, roughly 3720 shares are currently held short.

However Heartland Express's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Heartland Express shares, or, against the total number of tradable Heartland Express shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Heartland Express's short interest could be expressed as 0.02% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Heartland Express shares in existence, roughly 20 shares are currently held short) or 0.0447% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Heartland Express shares, roughly 45 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Heartland Express.

Find out more about how you can short Heartland Express stock.

Heartland Express share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 9.88% of net profits

Recently Heartland Express has paid out, on average, around 9.88% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 0.41% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Heartland Express shareholders could enjoy a 0.41% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Heartland Express's case, that would currently equate to about $0.08 per share.

While Heartland Express's payout ratio might seem low, this can signify that Heartland Express is investing more in its future growth.

Heartland Express's most recent dividend payout was on 1 October 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 18 September 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Heartland Express's shares ever split?

Heartland Express's shares were split on a 4:3 basis on 16 May 2006. So if you had owned 3 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 4 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Heartland Express shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 25% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Heartland Express shares which in turn could have impacted Heartland Express's share price.

Heartland Express share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Heartland Express's shares have ranged in value from as little as $15.65 up to $22.75. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while Heartland Express's is 0.5461. This would suggest that Heartland Express's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).

Heartland Express overview

Heartland Express, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a short-to-medium haul truckload carrier in the United States and Canada. The company primarily provides nationwide asset-based dry van truckload service for shippers from Washington to Florida and New England to California; and temperature-controlled truckload services. The company provides services under Heartland Express and Millis Transfer brand name. It primarily transports appliances, automotive parts, consumer products, paper products, packaged foodstuffs, and retail goods. The company principally serves retailers and manufacturers. Heartland Express, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in North Liberty, Iowa.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Heartland Express is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 44.052% of Heartland Express shares are held by insiders and 55.298% by institutions.

• How many people work for Heartland Express?

  Latest data suggests 4,050 work at Heartland Express.

• When does the fiscal year end for Heartland Express?

  Heartland Express's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is Heartland Express based?

  Heartland Express's address is: 901 North Kansas Avenue, North Liberty, IA, United States, 52317

• What is Heartland Express's ISIN number?

  Heartland Express's international securities identification number is: US4223471040

• What is Heartland Express's CUSIP number?

  Heartland Express's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 422347104