HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) Stock Price Down 1.3% – Should You Sell?

HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI)’s share price fell 1.3% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $13.80 and last traded at $13.83. 11,554 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 17% from the average session volume of 13,965 shares. The stock had previously closed at $14.01.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the company. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $19.00 price objective on shares of HireQuest in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Barrington Research raised their target price on HireQuest from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd.

HireQuest Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $192.92 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.09 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $13.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $13.14.

HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.03. HireQuest had a return on equity of 9.15% and a net margin of 14.27%. The company had revenue of $8.68 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.40 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.15 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that HireQuest, Inc. will post 0.59 EPS for the current year.

HireQuest Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 2nd were given a $0.06 dividend. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. HireQuest’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 63.16%.

Institutional Trading of HireQuest

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in HireQuest stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) by 0.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 267,461 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,490 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 1.91% of HireQuest worth $3,464,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 12.00% of the company’s stock.

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.