Heartland Express logs sixth straight quarter in | Finance news

Truckload service Heartland Specific posted a sixth straight quarterly web loss (excluding one-time positive aspects) however famous some enchancment in fundamentals thus far within the new 12 months.

North Liberty, Iowa-based Heartland (NASDAQ: HTLD) reported a web loss of $1.9 million, or 2 cents per share, for the 2024 fourth quarter (simply a 1-cent loss when excluding deal-related amortization expense). The consequence was higher than the consensus expectation of a 4-cent loss for the period.

The service reported headline earnings per share of 6 cents within the prior-year period. Nevertheless, that quarter included nonrecurring positive aspects of $25.6 million from the sale of three terminals.

In a Tuesday news release, CEO Mike Gerdin cautiously famous favorable trends thus far within the first quarter with the expectation of momentum building all year long.

“While it is early in the quarter and extreme winter weather conditions so far in 2025 make comparison difficult, we are seeing a positive shift in customer rate and volume negotiations that we expect to strengthen as the year unfolds,” Gerdin mentioned.

The fourth quarter included $6 million in positive aspects on the sale of used tools, that are considered by analysts as half of regular operations and a recurring offset to working bills. Nevertheless, Heartland’s positive aspects on tools gross sales in 2024 have been closely weighted to the fourth quarter (80% of the full-year whole) and benefited the period by roughly 6 cents when utilizing a normalized tax price.

Fourth-quarter income of $242.6 million was 11.9% decrease 12 months over 12 months and eight.9% decrease when excluding the impression of fuel surcharges. Income excluding fuel was 5.5% decrease than within the third quarter.

Heartland doesn’t present working metrics for utilization and pricing.

The service booked a 98.9% adjusted working ratio (working bills expressed as a share of income), which was 400 foundation factors worse than the 2023 fourth quarter (inclusive of the real estate positive aspects) however an enchancment from the 105.8% OR that excluded the positive aspects.

Salaries, wages and advantages (as a share of income) have been down 60 bps y/y, and rents and bought transportation bills fell 220 bps. Operations and upkeep bills have been 190 bps greater because the average tractor age elevated to 2.5 years within the quarter from 2.2 years within the year-ago period.

The company’s average tractor age for the present cycle peaked at 2.7 years within the third quarter.

Heartland has seen a extended stretch of powerful leads to half due to the severity of the freight recession but additionally because it acquired two fleets (Smith Transport and Contract Freighters) in the summertime of 2022 – the early days of the downturn.

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