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

HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during 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 shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 95,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.3 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HealthStream news, SVP Trisha L. Coady sold 7,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were 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 of the company's stock, valued at $387,013.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other HealthStream news, SVP Trisha L. Coady sold 7,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were 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 of the company's stock, valued at $387,013.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Michael Sousa sold 15,000 shares of the firm's 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 42,525 shares in the company, valued at $1,158,806.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 21.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of HealthStream

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of HealthStream by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 15,260 shares of the technology company's stock worth $413,000 after acquiring an additional 412 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its stake in HealthStream by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 58,816 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,590,000 after purchasing an additional 463 shares during the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its stake in HealthStream by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,658 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $369,000 after purchasing an additional 493 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its stake in HealthStream by 79.4% in the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,132 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 501 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in HealthStream by 46.0% in the 2nd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,893 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 596 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.58% of the company's stock.

HealthStream Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:HSTM traded down $0.23 on Tuesday, reaching $25.91. 114,558 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 99,498. The company has a fifty day moving average of $26.74 and a 200-day moving average of $25.50. HealthStream has a twelve month low of $20.47 and a twelve month high of $29.12. The company has a market capitalization of $785.07 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.86, a PEG ratio of 4.36 and a beta of 0.36.

HealthStream (NASDAQ:HSTM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 19th. The technology company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.07. HealthStream had a net margin of 5.45% and a return on equity of 4.71%. The company had revenue of $70.58 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $71.83 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.08 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that HealthStream will post 0.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HealthStream Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 11th were issued a dividend of $0.028 per share. This represents a $0.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 8th. This is an increase from HealthStream's previous quarterly dividend of $0.03. HealthStream's dividend payout ratio is 22.00%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HSTM has been the topic of several analyst reports. William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of HealthStream in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of HealthStream from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of HealthStream in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $32.00 price objective for the company. Finally, JMP Securities assumed coverage on shares of HealthStream in a research report on Wednesday, December 6th. They issued a "market perform" rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price 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.