H&E Equipment Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEES) Short Interest Update

H&E Equipment Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEES) was the target of a large decline in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,910,000 shares, a decline of 18.4% from the February 13th total of 2,340,000 shares. Approximately 6.0% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 968,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.0 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Access Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in H&E Equipment Services by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Access Financial Services Inc. now owns 20,976 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,027,000 after purchasing an additional 3,555 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in H&E Equipment Services by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 755,017 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $36,762,000 after purchasing an additional 4,226 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in H&E Equipment Services by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 779,075 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $37,925,000 after purchasing an additional 21,805 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new stake in H&E Equipment Services in the 3rd quarter worth $524,000. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its stake in H&E Equipment Services by 185.1% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 61,018 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,972,000 after purchasing an additional 39,617 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on HEES shares. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $92.00 target price (up from $60.00) on shares of H&E Equipment Services in a research note on Friday, January 17th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of H&E Equipment Services in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.33.

H&E Equipment Services Stock Performance

Shares of HEES stock traded up $0.84 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $94.65. 368,117 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 460,617. H&E Equipment Services has a 12 month low of $40.93 and a 12 month high of $101.28. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $87.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $64.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.09, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.47 billion, a PE ratio of 24.02 and a beta of 1.94.

H&E Equipment Services (NASDAQ:HEES) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 21st. The industrial products company reported $0.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $384.08 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $372.50 million. H&E Equipment Services had a net margin of 9.47% and a return on equity of 25.46%. On average, research analysts forecast that H&E Equipment Services will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

H&E Equipment Services Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. H&E Equipment Services’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.64%.

About H&E Equipment Services

H&E Equipment Services, Inc engages in the provision of equipment services, which focus on heavy construction and industrial equipment. It operates through the following segments: Equipment Rentals, New Equipment Sales, Used Equipment Sales, Parts Sales, and Services. The Equipment Rentals segment focuses on renting construction and industrial equipment.