Short Interest in HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM) Rises By 38.5%

HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 495,000 shares, an increase of 38.5% from the August 15th total of 357,500 shares. Currently, 2.1% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 117,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.2 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

HealthStream Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of HSTM stock traded up $0.03 on Monday, hitting $28.81. The stock had a trading volume of 5,473 shares, compared to its average volume of 108,905. HealthStream has a twelve month low of $21.08 and a twelve month high of $31.15. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $28.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $27.39. The firm has a market cap of $875.77 million, a P/E ratio of 49.62, a PEG ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.36.

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

HealthStream Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at HealthStream

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

Institutional Trading of HealthStream

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of HSTM. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of HealthStream by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,938,685 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $78,345,000 after purchasing an additional 31,943 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of HealthStream by 1.0% in the second 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 during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of HealthStream by 7.1% during the second 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 period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in HealthStream by 2.8% during 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in HealthStream by 8.7% in the 1st 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 period. Institutional investors own 69.58% of the company’s stock.

HealthStream Company Profile

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.