H&E Equipment Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEES) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of H&E Equipment Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEES) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $61.67.

HEES has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of H&E Equipment Services from $63.00 to $60.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. KeyCorp initiated coverage on shares of H&E Equipment Services in a research report on Friday, August 9th. They issued a “sector weight” rating for the company. Raymond James began coverage on H&E Equipment Services in a report on Friday, June 28th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on H&E Equipment Services from $65.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 31st.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On H&E Equipment Services

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in H&E Equipment Services by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 445,582 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $23,313,000 after purchasing an additional 4,978 shares in the last quarter. Versor Investments LP acquired a new position in H&E Equipment Services during the 4th quarter worth about $223,000. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its position in H&E Equipment Services by 8.4% during the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 225,732 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $11,810,000 after buying an additional 17,528 shares in the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in H&E Equipment Services by 31.9% during the 4th quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 135,541 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $7,092,000 after acquiring an additional 32,788 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in H&E Equipment Services in the 4th quarter valued at about $11,827,000. 84.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

H&E Equipment Services Stock Up 2.0 %

NASDAQ HEES opened at $43.62 on Wednesday. H&E Equipment Services has a twelve month low of $38.06 and a twelve month high of $66.18. The stock has a market cap of $1.59 billion, a PE ratio of 9.34, a PEG ratio of 9.16 and a beta of 1.85. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $47.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $50.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.17, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.61.

H&E Equipment Services (NASDAQ:HEES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The industrial products company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $376.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $382.05 million. H&E Equipment Services had a return on equity of 30.84% and a net margin of 10.53%. H&E Equipment Services’s revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.14 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that H&E Equipment Services will post 3.52 EPS for the current year.

H&E Equipment Services Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 28th were issued a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.52%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 28th. H&E Equipment Services’s payout ratio is currently 23.55%.

About H&E Equipment Services

H&E Equipment Services, Inc operates as an integrated equipment services company in the United States. The company operates in five segments: Equipment Rentals, Sales of Rental Equipment, Sales of New Equipment, Parts Sales, and Repair and Maintenance Services. The Equipment Rentals segment provides construction and industrial equipment for rent on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.