HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM) Short Interest Up 5.4% in September

HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 521,700 shares, an increase of 5.4% from the August 31st total of 495,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 119,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.4 days. Currently, 2.2% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HealthStream news, SVP Kevin P. O’hara sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.03, for a total transaction of $84,090.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,527 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $267,041.81. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, Director Tate Deborah Taylor sold 1,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.53, for a total value of $39,942.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 22,326 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $636,960.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Kevin P. O’hara sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.03, for a total value of $84,090.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9,527 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $267,041.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 20.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of HealthStream

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in HealthStream by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,938,685 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $78,345,000 after buying an additional 31,943 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of HealthStream by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,570,735 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $43,824,000 after purchasing an additional 15,379 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of HealthStream by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 530,178 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $14,792,000 after purchasing an additional 35,350 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of HealthStream by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 199,775 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,400,000 after purchasing an additional 5,367 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in HealthStream by 8.7% during the first quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 188,881 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,036,000 after purchasing an additional 15,150 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on HSTM shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of HealthStream from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on shares of HealthStream from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, HealthStream presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $30.00.

HealthStream Stock Performance

Shares of HSTM opened at $28.84 on Tuesday. HealthStream has a one year low of $21.49 and a one year high of $31.15. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $28.61 and its 200-day moving average is $27.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $876.68 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 0.36.

HealthStream (NASDAQ:HSTM) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $71.56 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 million. HealthStream had a net margin of 6.26% and a return on equity of 5.19%. HealthStream’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.13 EPS. Analysts forecast that HealthStream will post 0.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HealthStream Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 5th were given a dividend of $0.028 per share. This represents a $0.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 5th. HealthStream’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.97%.

About HealthStream

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.