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

HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) had its price target boosted by analysts at Barrington Research from $16.00 to $17.00 in a research note issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Barrington Research’s price objective points to a potential upside of 33.12% from the company’s previous close.

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

HireQuest Price Performance

Shares of HQI stock traded down $0.09 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $12.77. 8,783 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,069. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $12.81 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $12.79. HireQuest has a 1-year low of $11.39 and a 1-year high of $20.17. The firm has a market cap of $178.78 million, a PE ratio of 33.55 and a beta of 1.03.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at HireQuest

In other news, CEO Richard Hermanns acquired 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 14th. The stock was purchased at an average price 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,846,658.40. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders have bought 12,650 shares of company stock worth $156,246. 45.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of HireQuest

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of HireQuest by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 90,113 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,113,000 after acquiring an additional 772 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of HireQuest by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 267,461 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,464,000 after acquiring an additional 2,490 shares in the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE acquired a new stake in shares of HireQuest during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,047,000. 12.00% of the stock is currently 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.