HireQuest (HQI) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

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.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $9.04 to $9.96
• 50-Day Range: $9.94 to $14.50
• 52-Week Range: $9.04 to $15.75
• Volume: 50,752 shs
• Average Volume: 15,168 shs
• Market Capitalization: $139.49 million
• P/E Ratio: 90.36
• Dividend Yield: 2.41%
• Price Target: $17.50
• Consensus Rating: Buy

HireQuest Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

HireQuest scored higher than 64% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 131st out of 326 stocks in the business services sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 3.5 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Buy

Consensus Rating

HireQuest has received a consensus rating of Buy. The company's average rating score is 3.00, and is based on 2 buy ratings, no hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

HireQuest has only been the subject of 1 research reports in the past 90 days.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 1.9 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 196.43%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for HireQuest are expected to grow by 196.43% in the coming year, from $0.28 to $0.83 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of HireQuest is 90.36, which means that it is trading at a more expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 22.38.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of HireQuest is 90.36, which means that it is trading at a more expensive P/E ratio than the Business Services sector average P/E ratio of about 31.72.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

HireQuest has a P/B Ratio of 2.20. P/B Ratios below 3 indicates that a company is reasonably valued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 3.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

2.51% of the float of HireQuest has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

HireQuest has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 8.4.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in HireQuest has recently decreased by 0.35%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving.

Dividend

• Score: 1.7 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Weak

Dividend Yield

HireQuest pays a meaningful dividend of 2.38%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

Dividend Growth

HireQuest does not have a long track record of dividend growth.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of HireQuest is 96.00%. Payout ratios above 75% are not desirable because they may not be sustainable.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on earnings estimates, HireQuest will have a dividend payout ratio of 28.92% next year. This indicates that HireQuest will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

Sustainability and ESG

• Score: N/A
• Environmental Score: N/A

Percentage of Shares Shorted

2.51% of the float of HireQuest has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

HireQuest has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 8.4.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in HireQuest has recently decreased by 0.35%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving.

News and Social Media

• Score: 0.9 / 5
• News Sentiment: -0.30

News Sentiment

HireQuest has a news sentiment score of -0.30. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a lower news sentiment than the 0.88 average news sentiment score of Business Services companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 5 news articles for HireQuest this week, compared to 1 article on an average week.

Company Ownership

• Score: 1.7 / 5
• Insider Trading: N/A

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, HireQuest insiders have not sold or bought any company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

43.90% of the stock of HireQuest is held by insiders. A high percentage of insider ownership can be a sign of company health.

Percentage Held by Institutions

Only 12.00% of the stock of HireQuest is held by institutions.

HQI Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

How have HQI shares performed this year?

HireQuest's stock was trading at $14.16 at the beginning of 2025. Since then, HQI shares have decreased by 29.8% and is now trading at $9.94.
View the best growth stocks for 2025 here.

How were HireQuest's earnings last quarter?

HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) released its earnings results on Thursday, May, 8th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $7.47 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.03 million. HireQuest had a net margin of 4.04% and a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 11.02%.
Read the conference call transcript.

Who are HireQuest's major shareholders?

HireQuest's top institutional investors include Bank of New York Mellon Corp (0.77%), US Bancorp DE (0.68%) and Inlight Wealth Management LLC (0.03%). Insiders that own company stock include Richard Hermanns, Edward Jackson, Lawrence F Hagenbuch, R Rimmy Malhotra and Jack A Olmstead.
View institutional ownership trends.

How do I buy shares of HireQuest?

Shares of HQI stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.

What other stocks do shareholders of HireQuest own?

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that HireQuest investors own include NVIDIA (NVDA), Meta Platforms (META), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Netflix (NFLX), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Tesla (TSLA) and Broadcom (AVGO).

Company Calendar

• Record date for 3/17 Dividend: 3/03/2025
• Ex-Dividend for 3/17 Dividend: 3/03/2025
• Dividend Payable: 3/17/2025
• Last Earnings: 5/08/2025
• Today: 5/12/2025
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2025

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
• Sector: Business Services
• Industry: Help supply services
• Sub-Industry: Business Services
• Current Symbol: NASDAQ:HQI
• CIK: 1140102
• Web: www.hirequest.com
• Phone: (843) 723-7400
• Fax: 208-773-7467
• Employees: 73,100
• Year Founded: N/A

Price Target and Rating

• Average Stock Price Target: $17.50
• High Stock Price Target: $19.00
• Low Stock Price Target: $16.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +76.1%
• Consensus Rating: Buy
• Rating Score (0-4): 3.00
• Research Coverage: 2 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Most Recent Fiscal Year): $0.25
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 90.36
• Forward P/E Ratio: 35.50
• P/E Growth: N/A
• Net Income: $6.14 million
• Net Margins: 4.04%
• Pretax Margin: 5.66%
• Return on Equity: 11.02%
• Return on Assets: 6.69%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: N/A
• Current Ratio: 1.68
• Quick Ratio: 1.68

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $34.60 million
• Price / Sales: 4.03
• Cash Flow: $0.57 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 17.50
• Book Value: $4.51 per share
• Price / Book: 2.20

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 14,033,000
• Free Float: 7,854,000
• Market Cap: $139.49 million
• Optionable: Not Optionable
• Beta: 1.20