HireQuest (HQI) and Its Rivals Head-To-Head Review

HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) is one of 203 public companies in the “Professional Services” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare HireQuest to related companies based on the strength of its earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, risk and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares HireQuest and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HireQuest	27.06%	16.35%	12.11%
HireQuest Competitors	-0.60%	20.41%	4.31%

Volatility and Risk

HireQuest has a beta of 1.16, indicating that its stock price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HireQuest’s competitors have a beta of 0.98, indicating that their average stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for HireQuest and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HireQuest	0	1	2	0	2.67
HireQuest Competitors	1575	6431	9161	430	2.48

HireQuest currently has a consensus price target of $19.00, suggesting a potential upside of 16.49%. As a group, “Professional Services” companies have a potential upside of 26.98%. Given HireQuest’s competitors higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe HireQuest has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Dividends

HireQuest pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. HireQuest pays out 42.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Professional Services” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.5% and pay out -163.5% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. HireQuest lags its competitors as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

12.0% of HireQuest shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.4% of shares of all “Professional Services” companies are held by institutional investors. 42.9% of HireQuest shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 17.1% of shares of all “Professional Services” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares HireQuest and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
HireQuest	$30.64 million	$6.33 million	28.61
HireQuest Competitors	$3.30 billion	$228.36 million	29.80

HireQuest’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than HireQuest. HireQuest is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Summary

HireQuest competitors beat HireQuest on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

HireQuest Company Profile

HireQuest, Inc. provides temporary staffing services in the United States. It offers staffing services, including direct-dispatch, executive search, consultant, unskilled and semi-skilled industrial and construction personnel, clerical and administrative personnel, and permanent placement services, as well as commercial and non-CDL drivers, and skilled personnel in the medical and dental industries. The company provides its services under the HireQuest Direct, HireQuest, SNelling, DriverQuest, HireQuest Health, Northbound Executive Search, and MRI trade names. It serves construction, recycling, warehousing, logistics, auctioneering, manufacturing, hospitality, landscaping, and retail industries, as well as dental practices. HireQuest, Inc. was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Goose Creek, South Carolina.