HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) Authorizes Share Repurchase Program

HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, December 17th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $20.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 18.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on HQI. Weiss Ratings downgraded HireQuest from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Monday. Barrington Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $13.00 target price on shares of HireQuest in a research note on Wednesday, November 12th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $15.00 target price on HireQuest in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $14.00.

HireQuest Stock Down 3.4%

Shares of HQI opened at $8.40 on Friday. HireQuest has a 52-week low of $7.38 and a 52-week high of $15.75. The stock has a market cap of $118.44 million, a PE ratio of 16.80 and a beta of 1.13. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $8.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.41.

HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $8.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.11 million. HireQuest had a net margin of 21.92% and a return on equity of 14.48%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that HireQuest will post 0.28 earnings per share for the current year.

HireQuest Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 1st were issued a dividend of $0.06 per share. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 1st. HireQuest’s payout ratio is currently 48.00%.

HireQuest Company Profile

HireQuest, Inc is a publicly traded holding company that provides equipment rental and workforce solutions across North America through two primary operating subsidiaries. Its Coast Equipment Rentals division offers a broad range of support equipment—such as pumps, trench safety systems, power and HVAC units, air compressors, light towers and generators—to the construction, industrial, municipal and environmental markets. Coast Equipment Rentals operates more than 135 branch locations in 36 U.S.