Huron Consulting Group Inc. (NASDAQ:HURN) Short Interest Down 5.3% in April

Huron Consulting Group Inc. (NASDAQ:HURN) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 265,400 shares, a decrease of 5.3% from the March 31st total of 280,400 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 118,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.2 days. Currently, 1.5% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO C. Mark Hussey sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.48, for a total transaction of $417,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 98,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,268,921.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director John Mccartney sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.38, for a total value of $28,914.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 56,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,456,939.22. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO C. Mark Hussey sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.48, for a total value of $417,920.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 98,286 shares in the company, valued at $10,268,921.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 42,080 shares of company stock valued at $4,146,076 in the last ninety days. 2.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Huron Consulting Group by 6.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,053,491 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $213,892,000 after acquiring an additional 128,274 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in Huron Consulting Group by 7.3% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 885,714 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $92,256,000 after acquiring an additional 60,418 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Huron Consulting Group by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 390,687 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $40,163,000 after acquiring an additional 5,304 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in Huron Consulting Group by 36.0% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 233,224 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $24,293,000 after acquiring an additional 61,777 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Huron Consulting Group by 0.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 196,221 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $20,438,000 after acquiring an additional 696 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.90% of the company’s stock.

Huron Consulting Group Price Performance

Shares of HURN stock opened at $93.24 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a current ratio of 1.32. Huron Consulting Group has a fifty-two week low of $70.66 and a fifty-two week high of $113.31. The firm has a market cap of $1.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.14 and a beta of 0.58. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $96.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $100.59.

Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The business services provider reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.35. Huron Consulting Group had a return on equity of 17.77% and a net margin of 4.47%. The company had revenue of $355.96 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $348.80 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.87 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Huron Consulting Group will post 5.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on HURN shares. Barrington Research increased their price target on Huron Consulting Group from $128.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. StockNews.com downgraded Huron Consulting Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th.

Huron Consulting Group Company Profile

Huron Consulting Group Inc, a professional services firm, provides consultancy services in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Healthcare, Education, and Commercial. The Healthcare segment provides financial and operational performance improvement consulting services; digital offerings, spanning technology and analytic-related services; software products; organizational transformation services; revenue cycle managed and outsourcing services; financial and capital advisory consulting services; and strategy and innovation consulting services to national and regional health systems, academic and community health systems, federal health system, public, children's and critical access hospitals, physician practices and medical groups, payors, and long-term care or post-acute providers.