Forensic Analysis · Trucking & Courier · as of Nov 10, 2026
Heartland Express Inc (HTLD)
A forensic read on Heartland Express Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
4.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-6.6%
ROE
-23.1%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Heartland Express Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 4.2, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-4.0%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -4.0% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 2.3%. After-tax operating profit was $32M in FY2023 and ($45M) in FY2025, with operating income at 3.5% of revenue in FY2023, -1.9% in FY2024 and -7.1% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -17% across FY2023–FY2025, from $1.4B to $1.1B, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. FY2025's operating profit carried a $19M asset write-down that alone took about 1.3 points off that year's return, so about 1.3 of the 6.3-point fall across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge landing in the latest year rather than the capital earning less. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
FCF ($67M)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $17M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($67M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $89M — 19% of that. Capex and the payout together ran $83M past operating cash flow — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of. Over FY2025 cash rose $6M and total debt fell $34M, so neither line funded the gap. The FY2025 cash-flow statement filed $130M from sales of property and equipment; net cash used in investing activities of $26M; net cash used in financing activities of $58M.
-25%
FY2023→FY2024
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~25% in FY2024 (from FY2023). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$805.7M
Revenue Growth YoY-23.1%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-18.3%
Net Margin-6.5%
Free Cash Flow-$66.9M
Return on Equity-6.6%
Debt / Equity0.21x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Heartland Express Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?