Heartland Express, Inc. — Earnings Quality Grade F
HTLD · Industrials
Major red flags
Screening Summary
Management Signals
Financial Trends
Revenue & Net Income ($B)
Margins (%)
18-Point Screening
Revenue Quality
DSO 34 days, change +2 days YoY
AR outpaced revenue for 2 consecutive years
Revenue -23.1%, CFFO -38.1%. Cash follows revenue
Expense Quality
No material inventory
CapEx growth 42.6% is >2x revenue growth -23.1%
SG&A/Gross Profit = 98.4%, exceeds 70%
Gross margin 8.4%, change -2.1pp. Stable
Cash Flow Quality
CFFO/NI = -1.70. Below 1.0
FCF is negative ($-0.1B)
Accruals ratio = -11.9%. Low accruals
Cash $0.0B covers only 11% of debt $0.2B
Balance Sheet Health
Goodwill+Intangibles $0.4B = 52% of equity. Over 50%
Interest coverage = -5.4x (<2x). Financial stress
Other assets -4.7% vs revenue -23.1%. Normal
No write-off data
Acquisition Risk
FCF after acquisitions negative for 2/3 years
Goodwill+Intangibles change -6% YoY. Normal
Manipulation Score
M-Score = -3.10 (< -2.22). Unlikely manipulator
Portfolio monitoring
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Beneish M-Score
Altman Z-Score
Generated from public financial data using forensic accounting frameworks. Not investment advice. Data: Yahoo Finance · 2026-04-25