Huron Consulting Group Inc. (NASDAQ:HURN) Short Interest Up 11.7% in December

Huron Consulting Group Inc. (NASDAQ:HURN) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 156,500 shares, an increase of 11.7% from the December 15th total of 140,100 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 85,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.8 days. Approximately 0.9% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director James H. Roth sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.69, for a total transaction of $247,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 50,534 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,250,550.46. This trade represents a 3.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director H Eugene Lockhart sold 1,042 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.81, for a total value of $127,968.02. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 26,756 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,285,904.36. This represents a 3.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,584 shares of company stock valued at $1,062,597 over the last ninety days. 2.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Huron Consulting Group

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HURN. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in Huron Consulting Group by 7.0% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,373 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $149,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC purchased a new stake in Huron Consulting Group during the third quarter valued at approximately $220,000. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp bought a new stake in shares of Huron Consulting Group in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $220,000. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Huron Consulting Group in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $264,000. Finally, Dakota Wealth Management increased its position in shares of Huron Consulting Group by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 2,250 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $280,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares during the last quarter. 93.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Huron Consulting Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ HURN traded down $0.52 on Friday, reaching $127.03. 41,336 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 72,645. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82. Huron Consulting Group has a one year low of $84.26 and a one year high of $131.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.25 billion, a PE ratio of 27.62 and a beta of 0.60. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $123.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $113.08.

Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The business services provider reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.11. Huron Consulting Group had a return on equity of 21.51% and a net margin of 5.80%. The business had revenue of $370.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $377.63 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.39 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Huron Consulting Group will post 6.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $140.00 price objective on shares of Huron Consulting Group in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barrington Research increased their price target on Huron Consulting Group from $137.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Huron Consulting Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $133.00.

About Huron Consulting Group

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.