HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 313,100 shares, a growth of 13.6% from the February 29th total of 275,700 shares. Currently, 1.3% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 95,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.3 days.

Insider Transactions at HealthStream

In other news, SVP Trisha L. Coady sold 7,000 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 14,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $387,013.62. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP Michael Sousa sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.25, for a total transaction of $408,750.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 42,525 shares in the company, valued at $1,158,806.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Trisha L. Coady sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.34, for a total value of $184,380.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 14,693 shares in the company, valued at approximately $387,013.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 21.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in HealthStream by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,751,207 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $54,804,000 after purchasing an additional 13,515 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in HealthStream by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,539,740 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,816,000 after buying an additional 8,634 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in HealthStream by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 926,306 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $25,103,000 after buying an additional 2,722 shares in the last quarter. Punch & Associates Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in HealthStream by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Punch & Associates Investment Management Inc. now owns 781,333 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $21,174,000 after purchasing an additional 66,361 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Heartland Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in HealthStream by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. now owns 640,725 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $18,459,000 after purchasing an additional 5,593 shares during the last quarter. 69.58% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

HealthStream Stock Down 2.0 %

NASDAQ HSTM opened at $26.14 on Tuesday. HealthStream has a twelve month low of $20.47 and a twelve month high of $29.12. The company has a market cap of $792.04 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.36 and a beta of 0.36. The business’s fifty day moving average is $26.74 and its 200 day moving average is $25.50.

HealthStream (NASDAQ:HSTM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 19th. The technology company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.07. HealthStream had a return on equity of 4.71% and a net margin of 5.45%. The company had revenue of $70.58 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $71.83 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.08 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that HealthStream will post 0.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HealthStream Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, March 11th were given a dividend of $0.028 per share. This is a positive change from HealthStream’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.03. This represents a $0.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 8th. HealthStream’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on HSTM. JMP Securities began coverage on HealthStream in a research note on Wednesday, December 6th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. StockNews.com lowered HealthStream from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Barclays assumed coverage on HealthStream in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $32.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of HealthStream in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.00.

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.