Heartland Express (HTLD) Reports Q1 Loss, Lags Revenue Estimates

Core Viewpoint - Heartland Express reported a quarterly loss of $0.18 per share, which was worse than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of$0.13, marking an earnings surprise of -38.46% [1] - The company's revenues for the quarter were $219.42 million, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 9.20$270.32 million a year ago [2] Financial Performance - Over the last four quarters, Heartland Express has only surpassed consensus EPS estimates once [2] - The company has not beaten consensus revenue estimates in the last four quarters [2] - Year-to-date, Heartland Express shares have declined approximately 30.1%, compared to a 5.5% decline in the S&P 500 [3] Future Outlook - The company's earnings outlook will be crucial for investors, particularly in light of recent earnings report and future expectations [4] - Current consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming quarter is $0.02 on revenues of$275.22 million, and for the current fiscal year, it is $0.06 on revenues of$1.07 billion [7] Industry Context - The Transportation - Truck industry, to which Heartland Express belongs, is currently ranked in the bottom 1% of over 250 Zacks industries, indicating a challenging environment [8] - Empirical research suggests a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions, which could impact Heartland Express's stock performance [5][6]