Truckload carrier Heartland Express posted a sixth straight quarterly net loss (excluding one-time gains) but noted some improvement in fundamentals to date in the brand new yr.
North Liberty, Iowa-based Heartland (NASDAQ: HTLD) reported a net lack of $1.9 million, or 2 cents per share, for the 2024 fourth quarter (only a 1-cent loss when excluding deal-related amortization expense). The result was higher than the consensus expectation of a 4-cent loss for the period.
The carrier reported headline earnings per share of 6 cents within the prior-year period. Nevertheless, that quarter included nonrecurring gains of $25.6 million from the sale of three terminals.
In a Tuesday news release, CEO Mike Gerdin cautiously noted favorable trends to date in the primary quarter with the expectation of momentum constructing all year long.
“While it’s early within the quarter and extreme winter weather conditions to date in 2025 make comparison difficult, we’re seeing a positive shift in customer rate and volume negotiations that we expect to strengthen because the yr unfolds,” Gerdin said.
The fourth quarter included $6 million in gains on the sale of used equipment, that are viewed by analysts as a part of normal operations and a recurring offset to operating expenses. Nevertheless, Heartland’s gains on equipment sales in 2024 were heavily weighted to the fourth quarter (80% of the full-year total) and benefited the period by roughly 6 cents when using a normalized tax rate.
Fourth-quarter revenue of $242.6 million was 11.9% lower yr over yr and eight.9% lower when excluding the impact of fuel surcharges. Revenue excluding fuel was 5.5% lower than within the third quarter.
Heartland doesn’t provide operating metrics for utilization and pricing.
The carrier booked a 98.9% adjusted operating ratio (operating expenses expressed as a percentage of revenue), which was 400 basis points worse than the 2023 fourth quarter (inclusive of the actual estate gains) but an improvement from the 105.8% OR that excluded the gains.
Salaries, wages and advantages (as a percentage of revenue) were down 60 bps y/y, and rents and purchased transportation expenses fell 220 bps. Operations and maintenance expenses were 190 bps higher as the common tractor age increased to 2.5 years within the quarter from 2.2 years within the year-ago period.
The corporate’s average tractor age for the present cycle peaked at 2.7 years within the third quarter.
Heartland has seen a chronic stretch of tough leads to part because of 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.