Contrasting HireQuest (HQI) & Its Peers

HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) is one of 203 public companies in the “Professional Services” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare HireQuest to related companies based on the strength of its dividends, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

12.0% of HireQuest shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.4% of shares of all “Professional Services” companies are owned by institutional investors. 42.9% of HireQuest shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.2% of shares of all “Professional Services” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for HireQuest and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HireQuest	0	1	2	0	2.67
HireQuest Competitors	1583	6445	9166	430	2.48

HireQuest currently has a consensus price target of $19.00, suggesting a potential upside of 13.70%. As a group, “Professional Services” companies have a potential upside of 26.49%. Given HireQuest’s peers higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe HireQuest has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares HireQuest and its peers revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
HireQuest	$30.64 million	$6.33 million	29.32
HireQuest Competitors	$3.29 billion	$228.38 million	35.43

HireQuest’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than HireQuest. HireQuest is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Volatility and Risk

HireQuest has a beta of 1.26, indicating that its stock price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HireQuest’s peers have a beta of 0.97, indicating that their average stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares HireQuest and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HireQuest	27.06%	16.35%	12.11%
HireQuest Competitors	-0.59%	20.60%	4.33%

Dividends

HireQuest pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. HireQuest pays out 42.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Professional Services” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.5% and pay out -164.4% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. HireQuest lags its peers as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Summary

HireQuest peers beat HireQuest on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

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. The company provides its services under the HireQuest Direct, HireQuest, SNelling, DriverQuest, HireQuest Health, Northbound Executive Search, and MRI trade names. It serves construction, recycling, warehousing, logistics, auctioneering, manufacturing, hospitality, landscaping, and retail industries, as well as dental practices. HireQuest, Inc. was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Goose Creek, South Carolina.