HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) Short Interest Down 9.0% in September

HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 137,900 shares, a decline of 9.0% from the August 31st total of 151,500 shares. Currently, 2.5% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 15,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 8.9 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HireQuest

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. US Bancorp DE purchased a new position in shares of HireQuest during the fourth quarter valued at $2,047,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of HireQuest by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 267,461 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,464,000 after purchasing an additional 2,490 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of HireQuest by 0.9% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 90,113 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,113,000 after purchasing an additional 772 shares in the last quarter. 12.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

HireQuest Price Performance

Shares of HireQuest stock traded down $0.25 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $13.91. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,551 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,122. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $13.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $13.03. The stock has a market cap of $194.74 million, a P/E ratio of 37.26 and a beta of 1.01. HireQuest has a one year low of $11.39 and a one year high of $17.31.

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

HireQuest Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 2nd were issued a $0.06 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.73%. HireQuest’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 63.16%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

HireQuest Company Profile

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.