Heartland Express (HTLD): Palm Valley Capital Fund’s Top Q4 Contributor

Palm Valley Capital Management, an investment management firm, has released the “Palm Valley Capital Fund” fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here.  In the fourth quarter, Palm Valley Capital Fund appreciated 0.66% compared to a 1.70% gain for the S&P SmallCap 600 and a 3.12% rise in the Morningstar Small Cap Total Return Index. At the beginning of the quarter, the Fund allocated 74.1% to Treasury bills and increased to 76.3% by the end of the quarter. The equity holdings of the Fund rose by 1.12% over the past three months (excluding the effects of fund operating expenses). The performance of equities was positively influenced by the investments in precious metals, particularly as silver has been the Fund’s largest allocation for the past few years. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Palm Valley Capital Fund highlighted stocks such as Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD). Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) is a short-to-medium and long-haul truckload carrier. The one-month return of Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) was 6.26%, and its shares lost 8.97% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 5, 2026, Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) stock closed at $9.84 per share, with a market capitalization of $762.084 million.

Palm Valley Capital Fund stated the following regarding Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:

“One of the Fund’s top contributors in the fourth quarter was Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD). While the freight recession has been severe, Heartland’s operating results appear to be stabilizing. Trucking rates have shown signs of bottoming and are beginning to increase from very depressed levels. There is growing optimism that ongoing capacity reductions will support more meaningful pricing improvement in 2026. Additionally, stricter enforcement of trucking regulations is expected to further constrain the supply of available drivers. Early indicators suggest that profitability could return to both the trucking sector and Heartland Express over the coming year. In the meantime, we expect Heartland’s balance sheet will continue to improve, as the company has been reducing capacity and limiting capital expenditures on new equipment, helping reduce net debt by 60% in three years.”

In another article, we covered Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) and shared the list of top transportation and industrial stocks to buy. Palm Valley Capital Fund increased its stock holdings in Heartland Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLD) last quarter, expecting the trucking industry to rebound. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.