HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM) Short Interest Up 15.9% in April

HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 281,300 shares, an increase of 15.9% from the March 31st total of 242,800 shares. Approximately 1.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 110,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.6 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on HSTM. StockNews.com cut HealthStream from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Barclays started coverage on HealthStream in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $32.00 price objective for the company. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of HealthStream in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $32.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at HealthStream

In other HealthStream news, SVP Trisha L. Coady sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.34, for a total value of $184,380.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 14,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $387,013.62. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other HealthStream news, EVP Michael Sousa sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.25, for a total value of $408,750.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 42,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,158,806.25. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Trisha L. Coady sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.34, for a total value of $184,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 14,693 shares in the company, valued at approximately $387,013.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 20.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HealthStream

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of HealthStream by 82.4% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 34,135 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $910,000 after acquiring an additional 15,425 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co bought a new position in shares of HealthStream during the first quarter valued at about $213,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in shares of HealthStream during the fourth quarter valued at about $311,000. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of HealthStream by 79.4% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,132 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 501 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its stake in HealthStream by 14.8% in the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 407,428 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $11,013,000 after buying an additional 52,652 shares in the last quarter. 69.58% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

HealthStream Price Performance

Shares of HSTM opened at $25.77 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $783.41 million, a PE ratio of 44.43, a P/E/G ratio of 4.01 and a beta of 0.36. HealthStream has a one year low of $20.47 and a one year high of $29.12. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $26.00 and a 200-day moving average of $26.00.

HealthStream (NASDAQ:HSTM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $72.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $71.88 million. HealthStream had a return on equity of 5.21% and a net margin of 6.30%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.12 EPS. Analysts expect that HealthStream will post 0.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HealthStream Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be paid a $0.028 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $0.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. HealthStream’s payout ratio is presently 18.97%.

HealthStream Company Profile

HealthStream, Inc provides Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based applications for healthcare organizations in the United States. The company's solutions help healthcare organizations in meeting their ongoing clinical development, talent management, training, education, assessment, competency management, safety and compliance, and scheduling, as well as provider credentialing, privileging, and enrollment needs.