HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM) Short Interest Up 15.9% in April

HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 281,300 shares, an increase of 15.9% from the March 31st total of 242,800 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 110,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.6 days. Approximately 1.2% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling at HealthStream

In other news, EVP Michael Sousa sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.25, for a total value of $408,750.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 42,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,158,806.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP Michael Sousa sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.25, for a total value of $408,750.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 42,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,158,806.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Trisha L. Coady sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.34, for a total transaction of $184,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 14,693 shares in the company, valued at $387,013.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 20.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HealthStream

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HSTM. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in HealthStream during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $252,000. Strs Ohio boosted its position in shares of HealthStream by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 27,900 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $602,000 after acquiring an additional 2,700 shares during the last quarter. Cambiar Investors LLC boosted its position in shares of HealthStream by 21.2% during the 3rd quarter. Cambiar Investors LLC now owns 111,321 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,402,000 after acquiring an additional 19,499 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its position in shares of HealthStream by 568.2% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,156 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 983 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of HealthStream by 295.6% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 133,712 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,886,000 after acquiring an additional 99,913 shares during the last quarter. 69.58% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on HSTM shares. StockNews.com cut shares of HealthStream from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of HealthStream in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays started coverage on shares of HealthStream in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $32.00 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, HealthStream presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $32.00.

HealthStream Stock Performance

HSTM opened at $25.77 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $783.41 million, a P/E ratio of 44.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 0.36. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $26.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $26.00. HealthStream has a 52-week low of $20.47 and a 52-week high of $29.12.

HealthStream (NASDAQ:HSTM) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.07. HealthStream had a net margin of 6.30% and a return on equity of 5.21%. The business had revenue of $72.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $71.88 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.12 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that HealthStream will post 0.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HealthStream Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 17th. Investors of record on Monday, May 6th will be issued a $0.028 dividend. This represents a $0.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. HealthStream’s dividend payout ratio is 18.97%.

HealthStream Company Profile

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.