HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) Short Interest Update

HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 132,600 shares, a growth of 5.7% from the July 15th total of 125,400 shares. Approximately 2.4% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 14,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 9.5 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $19.00 target price on shares of HireQuest in a report on Friday, August 9th. Barrington Research restated an “outperform” rating and set a $16.00 price objective on shares of HireQuest in a research report on Friday, July 5th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Richard Hermanns acquired 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 14th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $12.70 per share, for a total transaction of $25,400.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,058,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,846,658.40. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders have acquired 12,650 shares of company stock valued at $156,246 in the last three months. 45.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of HireQuest

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in HireQuest by 0.9% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 90,113 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,113,000 after purchasing an additional 772 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE acquired a new stake in shares of HireQuest in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,047,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in HireQuest by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 267,461 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,464,000 after buying an additional 2,490 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 12.00% of the company’s stock.

HireQuest Stock Performance

Shares of HireQuest stock traded down $0.46 on Friday, hitting $13.36. The stock had a trading volume of 22,932 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,862. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $12.78 and a 200 day moving average of $12.79. HireQuest has a twelve month low of $11.39 and a twelve month high of $20.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $187.04 million, a P/E ratio of 35.16 and a beta of 1.03.

HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $8.68 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.40 million. HireQuest had a net margin of 14.06% and a return on equity of 9.23%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.15 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that HireQuest will post 0.54 earnings per share for the current year.

HireQuest Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.06 per share. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. HireQuest’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 63.16%.

About HireQuest

HireQuest, Inc provides temporary staffing services in the United States. It offers staffing services, including direct-dispatch, executive search, consultant, unskilled and semi-skilled industrial and construction personnel, clerical and administrative personnel, and permanent placement services, as well as commercial and non-CDL drivers, and skilled personnel in the medical and dental industries.