HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) Receives “Outperform” Rating from Barrington Research

Barrington Research reissued their outperform rating on shares of HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) in a research report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $16.00 price target on the stock.

Separately, DA Davidson decreased their price target on shares of HireQuest from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd.

HireQuest Price Performance

Shares of HireQuest stock opened at $12.02 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $168.28 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.63 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s 50 day moving average is $12.59 and its 200 day moving average is $13.06. HireQuest has a twelve month low of $11.40 and a twelve month high of $26.47.

HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.12 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.14 by ($0.02). HireQuest had a return on equity of 9.23% and a net margin of 14.06%. The business had revenue of $8.42 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.89 million. Sell-side analysts expect that HireQuest will post 0.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HireQuest Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were given a $0.06 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.00%. HireQuest’s payout ratio is presently 63.16%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Richard Hermanns acquired 4,219 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $12.08 per share, for a total transaction of $50,965.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,064,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,022,639.04. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last ninety days, insiders have acquired 16,413 shares of company stock worth $203,058. Company insiders own 45.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of HireQuest

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in HireQuest stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) by 0.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 267,461 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.