Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) & Grab (NASDAQ:GRAB) Financial Survey

Grab (NASDAQ:GRAB) and Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

55.5% of Grab shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.4% of Heartland Express shares are held by institutional investors. 3.6% of Grab shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 41.6% of Heartland Express shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Grab has a beta of 0.83, suggesting that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Heartland Express has a beta of 1.39, suggesting that its stock price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Grab and Heartland Express, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Grab	0	1	8	2	3.09
Heartland Express	3	4	0	0	1.57

Grab currently has a consensus target price of $5.67, suggesting a potential upside of 67.96%. Heartland Express has a consensus target price of $11.80, suggesting a potential upside of 9.97%. Given Grab’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Grab is more favorable than Heartland Express.

Profitability

This table compares Grab and Heartland Express’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Grab	15.97%	8.83%	4.92%
Heartland Express	-1.77%	0.30%	0.19%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Grab and Heartland Express”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Grab	$3.37 billion	4.10	$268.00 million	$0.06	56.25
Heartland Express	$805.71 million	1.03	-$52.45 million	($0.16)	-67.06

Grab has higher revenue and earnings than Heartland Express. Heartland Express is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Grab, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Grab beats Heartland Express on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Grab

Grab Holdings Limited engages in the provision of superapps in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The company offers its Grab ecosystem, a single platform with superapps for driver- and merchant-partners and consumers, that allows access to mobility, delivery, digital financial services, and enterprise sector offerings. Grab Holdings Limited is headquartered in Singapore.

About Heartland Express

Heartland Express, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a short-to-medium, and long-haul truckload carrier in the United States and Canada. It primarily provides nationwide asset-based dry van truckload service for shippers; cross-border freight and other transportation services; and temperature-controlled truckload services. The company offers its services under the Heartland Express and Millis Transfer brand names. It primarily serves retailers and manufacturers in consumer goods, appliances, food products, and automotive industries. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in North Liberty, Iowa.