Barrington Research Raises HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) Price Target to $17.00

HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) had its price target lifted by Barrington Research from $16.00 to $17.00 in a research note issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Barrington Research’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 33.12% from the stock’s previous close.

Separately, DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $19.00 price objective on shares of HireQuest in a research report on Friday, August 9th.

HireQuest Stock Down 0.7 %

HQI traded down $0.09 on Thursday, hitting $12.77. 8,783 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,069. The stock has a market capitalization of $178.78 million, a PE ratio of 33.55 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50 day moving average of $12.81 and a 200-day moving average of $12.79. HireQuest has a 12-month low of $11.39 and a 12-month high of $20.17.

HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.03. HireQuest had a return on equity of 9.23% and a net margin of 14.06%. The company had revenue of $8.68 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.40 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.15 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that HireQuest will post 0.54 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at HireQuest

In related news, CEO Richard Hermanns purchased 2,000 shares of HireQuest stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 14th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $12.70 per share, with a total value of $25,400.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 3,058,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,846,658.40. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders bought 12,650 shares of company stock valued at $156,246 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 45.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of HireQuest

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HQI. US Bancorp DE bought a new stake in shares of HireQuest in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,047,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in HireQuest by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 267,461 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,464,000 after purchasing an additional 2,490 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in HireQuest by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 90,113 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,113,000 after acquiring an additional 772 shares during the last quarter. 12.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.