Benchmark Reiterates Buy Rating for Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN)

Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by Benchmark in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $140.00 price target on the business services provider’s stock. Benchmark’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 62.19% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on HURN. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Huron Consulting Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Barrington Research raised their target price on Huron Consulting Group from $128.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th.

Huron Consulting Group Price Performance

HURN traded up $0.68 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $86.32. The stock had a trading volume of 170,457 shares, compared to its average volume of 122,147. The business has a 50-day moving average of $95.07 and a 200-day moving average of $100.28. Huron Consulting Group has a one year low of $70.66 and a one year high of $113.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a current ratio of 2.40. The stock has a market cap of $1.55 billion, a PE ratio of 24.88 and a beta of 0.59.

Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The business services provider reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.35. Huron Consulting Group had a return on equity of 19.21% and a net margin of 4.67%. The company had revenue of $355.96 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $348.80 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.87 EPS. Huron Consulting Group’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Huron Consulting Group will post 5.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO C. Mark Hussey sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.48, for a total value of $417,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 98,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,268,921.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, Director John Mccartney sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.06, for a total transaction of $27,018.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 56,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,072,089.14. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO C. Mark Hussey sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.48, for a total transaction of $417,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 98,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,268,921.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 40,380 shares of company stock worth $3,966,654. 2.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Huron Consulting Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Semanteon Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Huron Consulting Group during the fourth quarter valued at $1,166,000. Jump Financial LLC bought a new stake in Huron Consulting Group during the 3rd quarter valued at about $583,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Huron Consulting Group in the third quarter worth about $872,000. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Huron Consulting Group by 36.0% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 233,224 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $24,293,000 after buying an additional 61,777 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Huron Consulting Group by 6.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,053,491 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $213,892,000 after buying an additional 128,274 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.90% of the company’s stock.

Huron Consulting Group Company Profile

Huron Consulting Group Inc, a professional services firm, provides consultancy services in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Healthcare, Education, and Commercial. The Healthcare segment provides financial and operational performance improvement consulting services; digital offerings, spanning technology and analytic-related services; software products; organizational transformation services; revenue cycle managed and outsourcing services; financial and capital advisory consulting services; and strategy and innovation consulting services to national and regional health systems, academic and community health systems, federal health system, public, children's and critical access hospitals, physician practices and medical groups, payors, and long-term care or post-acute providers.