Heartland Express (HTLD) Competitors

Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) and Covenant Logistics Group (NASDAQ:CVLG) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, community ranking, media sentiment, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor HTLD or CVLG?

Heartland Express received 336 more outperform votes than Covenant Logistics Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 48.55% of users gave Heartland Express an outperform vote while only 42.11% of users gave Covenant Logistics Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Heartland Express	Outperform Votes 352 48.55%	Underperform Votes 373 51.45%
Covenant Logistics Group	Outperform Votes 16 42.11%	Underperform Votes 22 57.89%

Do analysts rate HTLD or CVLG?

Heartland Express currently has a consensus target price of $11.75, indicating a potential downside of 3.61%. Covenant Logistics Group has a consensus target price of $69.50, indicating a potential upside of 22.49%. Given Covenant Logistics Group's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Covenant Logistics 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)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.50
Covenant Logistics Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, HTLD or CVLG?

Covenant Logistics Group has higher revenue and earnings than Heartland Express. Heartland Express is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Covenant Logistics 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	$1.08B	0.89	$14.77M	-$0.29	-42.03
Covenant Logistics Group	$1.13B	0.66	$55.23M	$3.04	18.66

Is HTLD or CVLG a better dividend stock?

Heartland Express pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Covenant Logistics Group pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Heartland Express pays out -27.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Covenant Logistics Group pays out 14.5% 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.

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in HTLD or CVLG?

53.5% of Heartland Express shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.7% of Covenant Logistics Group shares are held by institutional investors. 39.6% of Heartland Express shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 36.5% of Covenant Logistics Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more volatility and risk, HTLD or CVLG?

Heartland Express has a beta of 0.71, indicating that its stock price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Covenant Logistics Group has a beta of 1.35, indicating that its stock price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is HTLD or CVLG more profitable?

Covenant Logistics Group has a net margin of 3.72% compared to Heartland Express' net margin of -2.11%. Covenant Logistics Group's return on equity of 13.43% beat Heartland Express' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Heartland Express	-2.11%	-2.70%	-1.59%
Covenant Logistics Group	3.72%	13.43%	5.72%

Does the media favor HTLD or CVLG?

In the previous week, Heartland Express had 3 more articles in the media than Covenant Logistics Group. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Heartland Express and 1 mentions for Covenant Logistics Group. Heartland Express' average media sentiment score of 1.16 beat Covenant Logistics Group's score of -0.08 indicating that Heartland Express is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Heartland Express	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Covenant Logistics Group	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Summary

Covenant Logistics Group beats Heartland Express on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.