Losses narrow at Heartland Express as market shifts

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Truckload carrier Heartland Express saw losses narrow again in the first quarter.

The North Liberty, Iowa-based company reported a net loss of $4.8 million, or 6 cents per share. A 101.3% adjusted operating ratio (inverse of operating margin) was 580 basis points better year over year, and 30 bps better than the seasonally stronger fourth quarter. Heartland (NASDAQ: HTLD) has reported sequential OR improvement in each of the past four quarters.

Revenue of $176 million was down 20% y/y. The quarter benefitted from $7.3 million in gains on equipment sales, a 5-cent-per-share y/y tailwind at a normalized tax rate.

Table: Heartland’s key performance indicators

“We have begun to see some encouraging signs related to market capacity reductions and freight demand improvements,” said CEO Mike Gerdin in a news release. “We believe that meaningful improvements in freight demand and freight pricing have started, but may not fully materialize until later in 2026.”

He said “significant negative weather events” were a drag on January and February results, but that the company saw “improved freight volumes and driver utilization” during March. However, a quick runup in diesel fuel prices limited the upside in March.

(Heartland does not host a quarterly call, nor does it provide operating metrics for utilization and pricing.)

<em>SONAR: Van Contract Rate Per Mile Index (VCRPM1.USA) for 2026 (blue shaded area), 2025 (yellow line), <em>2024 (green line) and 2023 (pink line).</em> The index shows a 7-day moving average of the initial reporting of dry van rate contract rates (without fuel or accessorial charges).</em> <em>To learn more about SONAR, <a href="https://gosonar.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:click here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" data-yga=""yLinkElement":"context_link","yModuleName":"content-canvas","yLinkText":"click here"" class="link ">click here</a>.</em> — *SONAR: Van Contract Rate Per Mile Index (VCRPM1.USA) for 2026 (blue shaded area), 2025 (yellow line),* *2024 (green line) and 2023 (pink line).* The index shows a 7-day moving average of the initial reporting of dry van rate contract rates (without fuel or accessorial charges). *To learn more about SONAR, click here.*

Operating cash flows totaled $23 million in the quarter, slightly off from $26 million in the year-ago quarter.

Heartland reduced net debt by $36 million in the period to $105 million outstanding. It ended the quarter with $89 million available on an untapped revolving credit facility and was in compliance with financial covenants.

An average tractor age of 2.6 years has not changed over the past year. The company forecast net capex of $10 million to $20 million in 2026, with gains on equipment sales totaling $25 million to $35 million.

Shares of HTLD were up 4.5% at 12:27 p.m. EDT on Thursday compared to the S&P 500, which was off 0.1%.

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