Barrett Business Services (NASDAQ:BBSI) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Barrett Business Services (NASDAQ:BBSI) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Friday morning.

Separately, Barrington Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $45.00 price target on shares of Barrett Business Services in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th.

Barrett Business Services Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BBSI opened at $42.42 on Friday. Barrett Business Services has a one year low of $30.68 and a one year high of $44.97. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.59 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.39, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.02.

Barrett Business Services (NASDAQ:BBSI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.13) by $0.09. Barrett Business Services had a net margin of 4.55% and a return on equity of 25.28%. The business had revenue of $292.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $285.91 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.01) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Barrett Business Services will post 2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Barrett Business Services Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 23rd will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 23rd. Barrett Business Services’s dividend payout ratio is 16.41%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tieton Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Barrett Business Services by 23.2% in the fourth quarter. Tieton Capital Management LLC now owns 251,628 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $10,931,000 after purchasing an additional 47,447 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of Barrett Business Services by 42.9% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 61,332 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,300,000 after purchasing an additional 18,414 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Barrett Business Services in the fourth quarter worth approximately $485,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Barrett Business Services by 17.1% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 50,091 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,176,000 after purchasing an additional 7,301 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers grew its holdings in shares of Barrett Business Services by 19.9% in the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 46,107 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,003,000 after purchasing an additional 7,653 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.76% of the company’s stock.

Barrett Business Services Company Profile

Barrett Business Services, Inc provides business management solutions for small and mid-sized companies in the United States. The company develops a management platform that integrates a knowledge-based approach from the management consulting industry with tools from the human resource outsourcing industry.