HealthStream (NASDAQ:HSTM) Lowered to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of HealthStream (NASDAQ:HSTM) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning.

HSTM has been the subject of several other reports. Barclays began coverage on HealthStream in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. They issued an overweight rating and a $32.00 price target for the company. William Blair reissued an outperform rating on shares of HealthStream in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, HealthStream currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $32.00.

HealthStream Price Performance

Shares of HealthStream stock opened at $25.61 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $25.88. HealthStream has a fifty-two week low of $20.47 and a fifty-two week high of $29.12. The firm has a market cap of $778.54 million, a P/E ratio of 44.16, a P/E/G ratio of 4.00 and a beta of 0.36.

HealthStream (NASDAQ:HSTM) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.07. HealthStream had a net margin of 6.30% and a return on equity of 5.21%. The firm had revenue of $72.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $71.88 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.12 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that HealthStream will post 0.54 EPS for the current year.

HealthStream Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be paid a $0.028 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $0.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. HealthStream’s dividend payout ratio is 18.97%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Trisha L. Coady sold 7,000 shares of HealthStream 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 owns 14,693 shares in the company, valued at $387,013.62. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, EVP Michael Sousa sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 42,525 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,158,806.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 completion of 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. Insiders own 20.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HealthStream

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HSTM. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in shares of HealthStream by 568.2% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,156 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 983 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new position in HealthStream in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its position in HealthStream by 79.4% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,132 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 501 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of HealthStream during the third quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Diversified Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of HealthStream in the first quarter valued at about $213,000. Institutional investors 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.