HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on HQI. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of HireQuest from $15.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Barrington Research set a $19.00 target price on shares of HireQuest in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of HireQuest from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.00.

HireQuest Price Performance

HireQuest stock opened at $16.14 on Friday. HireQuest has a 52 week low of $7.38 and a 52 week high of $19.01. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $14.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $12.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $224.35 million, a PE ratio of 28.32 and a beta of 1.14.

HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 10th. The company reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $8.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.10 million. HireQuest had a return on equity of 16.35% and a net margin of 27.06%. On average, research analysts expect that HireQuest will post 0.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HireQuest Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.06 per share. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 1st. HireQuest’s payout ratio is 42.11%.

Institutional Trading of HireQuest

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of HQI. NewEdge Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in HireQuest in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,169,000. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in HireQuest in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $3,381,000. Manatuck Hill Partners LLC acquired a new stake in HireQuest during the second quarter worth $126,000. Ancora Advisors LLC acquired a new position in HireQuest in the second quarter worth about $315,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in HireQuest during the second quarter worth $157,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 12.00% of the company’s stock.

About HireQuest

HireQuest, Inc is a publicly traded holding company that provides equipment rental and workforce solutions across North America through two primary operating subsidiaries. Its Coast Equipment Rentals division offers a broad range of support equipment—such as pumps, trench safety systems, power and HVAC units, air compressors, light towers and generators—to the construction, industrial, municipal and environmental markets. Coast Equipment Rentals operates more than 135 branch locations in 36 U.S.