HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM) Short Interest Up 13.1% in November

HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 606,000 shares, a growth of 13.1% from the October 31st total of 535,800 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 131,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.6 days. Currently, 2.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HSTM. Quarry LP bought a new stake in HealthStream during the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in HealthStream by 172.1% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 996 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares in the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd bought a new position in HealthStream during the 2nd quarter worth about $38,000. Copeland Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of HealthStream during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $63,000. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its position in HealthStream by 405.4% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,709 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $76,000 after buying an additional 2,173 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.58% of the company’s stock.

HealthStream Stock Performance

HealthStream stock traded down $0.13 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $33.03. 21,023 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 117,577. The stock has a market cap of $1.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 0.38. HealthStream has a 12-month low of $23.92 and a 12-month high of $33.52. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $30.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.95.

HealthStream (NASDAQ:HSTM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The technology company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.06. HealthStream had a net margin of 6.84% and a return on equity of 5.67%. The firm had revenue of $73.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $73.53 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.13 earnings per share. HealthStream’s revenue was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that HealthStream will post 0.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HealthStream Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 4th were paid a $0.028 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 4th. This represents a $0.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. HealthStream’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.92%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays raised their target price on shares of HealthStream from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on HealthStream from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Craig Hallum raised shares of HealthStream to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.50.

About HealthStream

HealthStream, Inc provides Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based applications for healthcare organizations in the United States. The company’s solutions help healthcare organizations in meeting their ongoing clinical development, talent management, training, education, assessment, competency management, safety and compliance, and scheduling, as well as provider credentialing, privileging, and enrollment needs.