HealthStream (NASDAQ:HSTM) Hits New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $32.93 and last traded at $32.77, with a volume of 9011 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $32.60.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on HSTM shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of HealthStream from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of HealthStream from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on shares of HealthStream from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Craig Hallum raised shares of HealthStream to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.50.

HealthStream Stock Down 1.7 %

The company’s fifty day moving average is $29.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $28.46. The stock has a market cap of $974.35 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.28, a PEG ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.35.

HealthStream (NASDAQ:HSTM) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The technology company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $73.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $73.53 million. HealthStream had a net margin of 6.84% and a return on equity of 5.67%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.13 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that HealthStream, Inc. will post 0.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HealthStream Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th will be issued a $0.028 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 4th. This represents a $0.11 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. HealthStream’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.92%.

Insider Activity at HealthStream

In other HealthStream news, Director Tate Deborah Taylor sold 1,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.53, for a total transaction of $39,942.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 22,326 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $636,960.78. This trade represents a 5.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 20.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of HealthStream

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in HealthStream by 1.1% during the first 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. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System grew its position in shares of HealthStream by 1.5% during the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 78,749 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,134,000 after acquiring an additional 1,131 shares during the last quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C purchased a new position in shares of HealthStream during the second quarter worth approximately $626,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of HealthStream by 58.6% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 146,826 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,096,000 after acquiring an additional 54,227 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of HealthStream by 141.2% during the third quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 400,033 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $11,537,000 after acquiring an additional 234,148 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.