HealthStream (NASDAQ:HSTM) Cut to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of HealthStream (NASDAQ:HSTM) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on HSTM. William Blair restated an outperform rating on shares of HealthStream in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Barclays began coverage on shares of HealthStream in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. They set an overweight rating and a $32.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $32.00.

HealthStream Price Performance

Shares of HealthStream stock opened at $25.61 on Wednesday. HealthStream has a 1 year low of $20.47 and a 1 year high of $29.12. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $26.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.88. The company has a market capitalization of $778.54 million, a P/E ratio of 44.16, a P/E/G ratio of 4.00 and a beta of 0.36.

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

HealthStream Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be issued a $0.028 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $0.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. HealthStream’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.97%.

Insider Transactions at HealthStream

In other HealthStream news, SVP Trisha L. Coady sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.34, for a total transaction 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 $387,013.62. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, SVP Trisha L. Coady sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.34, for a total transaction of $184,380.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 14,693 shares in the company, valued at approximately $387,013.62. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Michael Sousa sold 15,000 shares of HealthStream stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.25, for a total transaction of $408,750.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 42,525 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,158,806.25. 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

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in shares of HealthStream by 568.2% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,156 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 983 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new position in shares of HealthStream in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of HealthStream by 79.4% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,132 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 501 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of HealthStream during the third quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Diversified Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of HealthStream during the first quarter worth approximately $213,000. 69.58% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.