Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN) Trading Down 5% Following Insider Selling

Huron Consulting Group Inc. (NASDAQ:HURN) shares dropped 5% during mid-day trading on Friday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $141.11 and last traded at $141.13. Approximately 189,076 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 55% from the average daily volume of 122,200 shares. The stock had previously closed at $148.55.

Specifically, Director James H. Roth sold 8,642 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.27, for a total transaction of $1,289,991.34. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 56,279 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,400,766.33. This represents a 13.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HURN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barrington Research upped their price objective on shares of Huron Consulting Group from $142.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Huron Consulting Group in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Benchmark upped their price objective on shares of Huron Consulting Group from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Huron Consulting Group from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Wedbush assumed coverage on shares of Huron Consulting Group in a report on Monday, February 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $155.50.

Huron Consulting Group Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $2.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.62 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 1.61. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $134.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $122.33.

Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The business services provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $399.31 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $380.62 million. Huron Consulting Group had a net margin of 5.80% and a return on equity of 21.51%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Huron Consulting Group Inc. will post 6.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Huron Consulting Group by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 601,335 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $74,722,000 after buying an additional 27,329 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Huron Consulting Group by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 543,236 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $67,503,000 after buying an additional 4,946 shares during the period. Sunriver Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Huron Consulting Group by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. Sunriver Management LLC now owns 486,597 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $60,465,000 after buying an additional 46,968 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Huron Consulting Group by 16.4% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 460,650 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $57,240,000 after buying an additional 64,862 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Huron Consulting Group by 2.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 445,694 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $48,447,000 after buying an additional 8,972 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.90% of the company’s stock.

About Huron Consulting Group

Huron Consulting Group Inc, a professional services firm, provides consultancy services in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Healthcare, Education, and Commercial. The Healthcare segment provides financial and operational performance improvement consulting services; digital offerings, spanning technology and analytic-related services; software products; organizational transformation services; revenue cycle managed and outsourcing services; financial and capital advisory consulting services; and strategy and innovation consulting services to national and regional health systems, academic and community health systems, federal health system, public, children’s and critical access hospitals, physician practices and medical groups, payors, and long-term care or post-acute providers.