HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSTM - Get Free Report) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 834,800 shares, a growth of 9.6% from the November 30th total of 761,800 shares. Currently, 3.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 138,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.0 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on HSTM shares. Craig Hallum upgraded HealthStream to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price 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, Barclays increased their target price on shares of HealthStream from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $31.50.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HealthStream

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HSTM. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in HealthStream by 18.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 57,204 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,650,000 after purchasing an additional 9,017 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of HealthStream by 11.7% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 14,737 shares of the technology company's stock worth $425,000 after buying an additional 1,538 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of HealthStream by 145.0% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 58,838 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,697,000 after buying an additional 34,821 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of HealthStream by 2.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 674,764 shares of the technology company's stock worth $19,463,000 after buying an additional 18,779 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vestcor Inc lifted its holdings in HealthStream by 35.1% in the third quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 7,494 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $216,000 after buying an additional 1,946 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 69.58% of the company's stock.

HealthStream Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:HSTM traded up $0.01 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $31.80. The company's stock had a trading volume of 62,500 shares, compared to its average volume of 117,523. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $31.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.60. HealthStream has a fifty-two week low of $23.92 and a fifty-two week high of $33.52. The company has a market capitalization of $967.36 million, a P/E ratio of 48.92, a P/E/G ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 0.38.

HealthStream (NASDAQ:HSTM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The technology company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.06. HealthStream had a net margin of 6.84% and a return on equity of 5.67%. The company had revenue of $73.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.53 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.13 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that HealthStream will post 0.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HealthStream Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th were paid a $0.028 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. This represents a $0.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. HealthStream's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.92%.

About HealthStream

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.