Short Interest in HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) Decreases By 9.0%

HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) saw a significant decline in short interest in 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. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 15,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 8.9 days. Currently, 2.5% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

HireQuest Stock Down 3.2 %

NASDAQ:HQI opened at $14.16 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $13.65 and a 200 day moving average of $13.03. HireQuest has a 52 week low of $11.39 and a 52 week high of $17.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $198.24 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.26 and a beta of 1.01.

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

HireQuest Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.06 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. HireQuest’s payout ratio is 63.16%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HireQuest

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in HireQuest by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 90,113 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,113,000 after purchasing an additional 772 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of HireQuest by 0.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 267,461 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,464,000 after buying an additional 2,490 shares during the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE acquired a new stake in shares of HireQuest during the fourth quarter worth $2,047,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.