Heartland Express (HTLD) Competitors

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) and Avis Budget Group (NASDAQ:CAR) are both transportation companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, community ranking, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Do analysts rate HTLD or CAR?

Heartland Express presently has a consensus price target of $10.33, suggesting a potential upside of 24.95%. Avis Budget Group has a consensus price target of $121.33, suggesting a potential upside of 75.64%. Given Avis Budget Group's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Avis Budget Group is more favorable than Heartland Express.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Heartland Express	2 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.33
Avis Budget Group	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.43

Do insiders & institutionals believe in HTLD or CAR?

53.5% of Heartland Express shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.3% of Avis Budget Group shares are held by institutional investors. 39.6% of Heartland Express shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 52.0% of Avis Budget Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media favor HTLD or CAR?

In the previous week, Avis Budget Group had 2 more articles in the media than Heartland Express. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for Avis Budget Group and 7 mentions for Heartland Express. Avis Budget Group's average media sentiment score of 0.70 beat Heartland Express' score of 0.53 indicating that Avis Budget Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Heartland Express	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Avis Budget Group	4 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more volatility and risk, HTLD or CAR?

Heartland Express has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Avis Budget Group has a beta of 2.05, suggesting that its stock price is 105% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has better earnings and valuation, HTLD or CAR?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Heartland Express	$1.05B	0.62	-$29.72M	-$0.37	-22.35
Avis Budget Group	$11.62B	0.21	-$1.82B	-$51.81	-1.33

Does the MarketBeat Community favor HTLD or CAR?

Heartland Express received 71 more outperform votes than Avis Budget Group when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 53.12% of users gave Avis Budget Group an outperform vote while only 48.48% of users gave Heartland Express an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Heartland Express	Outperform Votes 352 48.48%	Underperform Votes 374 51.52%
Avis Budget Group	Outperform Votes 281 53.12%	Underperform Votes 248 46.88%

Is HTLD or CAR more profitable?

Heartland Express has a net margin of -2.84% compared to Avis Budget Group's net margin of -15.45%. Heartland Express' return on equity of -3.57% beat Avis Budget Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Heartland Express	-2.84%	-3.57%	-2.14%
Avis Budget Group	-15.45%	-14.74%	0.40%

Summary

Avis Budget Group beats Heartland Express on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.