HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM) Short Interest Update

HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 834,800 shares, an increase of 9.6% from the November 30th total of 761,800 shares. Approximately 3.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 138,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.0 days.

HealthStream Stock Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ HSTM opened at $31.79 on Tuesday. HealthStream has a fifty-two week low of $23.92 and a fifty-two week high of $33.52. The business has a fifty day moving average of $31.50 and a 200-day moving average of $29.60. The stock has a market cap of $966.89 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.36 and a beta of 0.38.

HealthStream (NASDAQ:HSTM) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The technology company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.53 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.13 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that HealthStream will post 0.63 EPS for the current year.

HealthStream Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th were paid a dividend of $0.028 per share. This represents a $0.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 4th. HealthStream’s payout ratio is 16.92%.

Institutional Trading of HealthStream

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in HealthStream by 145.0% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 58,838 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,697,000 after buying an additional 34,821 shares during the last quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C purchased a new position in shares of HealthStream during the 2nd quarter worth about $626,000. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of HealthStream by 1.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 974,235 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $28,097,000 after acquiring an additional 11,976 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in HealthStream by 141.2% in the third quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 400,033 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $11,537,000 after purchasing an additional 234,148 shares during the period. Finally, First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its position in HealthStream by 7.1% during the second quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 530,178 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $14,792,000 after purchasing an additional 35,350 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 brokerages have recently weighed in on HSTM. Craig Hallum upgraded HealthStream to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of HealthStream from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on shares of HealthStream from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, HealthStream has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average 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.