How to buy Healthcare Services Group stock | 23.47

Healthcare Services Group, Inc is a medical care facilities business based in the US. Healthcare Services Group shares (HCSG) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Healthcare Services Group employs 51,000 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$1.8 billion.

How to buy shares in Healthcare Services Group

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Healthcare Services Group. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: HCSG. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Healthcare Services Group reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$23.47, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Healthcare Services Group, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Healthcare Services Group. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

How has coronavirus impacted Healthcare Services Group's share price?

Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, Healthcare Services Group's share price has had significant negative movement.

Its last market close was USD$23.47, which is 22.92% down on its pre-crash value of USD$30.45 and 48.54% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the shares fell as low as USD$15.8.

If you had bought USD$1,000 worth of Healthcare Services Group shares at the start of February 2020, those shares would have been worth USD$775.64 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth USD$900.31.

Healthcare Services Group share price

Use our graph to track the performance of HCSG stocks over time.

Healthcare Services Group shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-10-20.

Latest market close	USD$23.47
52-week range	USD$15.8 - USD$31.3
50-day moving average	USD$21.7962
200-day moving average	USD$23.4854
Wall St. target price	USD$27.57
PE ratio	21.9306
Dividend yield	USD$0.81 (3.42%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$1.08

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Is it a good time to buy Healthcare Services Group stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Healthcare Services Group, Inc by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Healthcare Services Group price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $23.47 from 2020-11-16

1 week (2020-11-23)	0.19%
1 month (2020-10-30)	2.58%
3 months (2020-08-28)	10.27%
6 months (2020-05-29)	-1.88%

1 year (2019-11-29)	-6.68%
2 years (2018-11-30)	-50.28%
3 years (2017-11-30)	-54.80%
5 years (2015-11-30)	-36.46%

Is Healthcare Services Group under- or over-valued?

Valuing Healthcare Services Group stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Healthcare Services Group's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Healthcare Services Group's P/E ratio

Healthcare Services Group's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 22x. In other words, Healthcare Services Group shares trade at around 22x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

Healthcare Services Group's PEG ratio

Healthcare Services Group's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 2.1776. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Healthcare Services Group's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Healthcare Services Group's EBITDA

Healthcare Services Group's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$115.7 million.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Healthcare Services Group's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Healthcare Services Group financials

Revenue TTM	USD$1.8 billion
Operating margin TTM	5.66%
Gross profit TTM	USD$227.9 million
Return on assets TTM	8.83%
Return on equity TTM	17.91%
Profit margin	4.47%
Book value	$6.042
Market capitalisation	USD$1.8 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Healthcare Services Group shares

There are currently 11.3 million Healthcare Services Group shares held short by investors – that's known as Healthcare Services Group's "short interest". This figure is 4.6% down from 11.9 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Healthcare Services Group shares can be evaluated.

Healthcare Services Group's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Healthcare Services Group's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Healthcare Services Group shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Healthcare Services Group shares traded daily (recently around 561780.69306931). Healthcare Services Group's SIR currently stands at 20.2. In other words for every 100,000 Healthcare Services Group shares traded daily on the market, roughly 20200 shares are currently held short.

However Healthcare Services Group's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Healthcare Services Group shares, or, against the total number of tradable Healthcare Services Group shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Healthcare Services Group's short interest could be expressed as 0.15% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Healthcare Services Group shares in existence, roughly 150 shares are currently held short) or 0.199% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Healthcare Services Group shares, roughly 199 shares are currently held short).

A SIR above 20% would generally be considered very high, pointing to a pessimistic outlook for the share price, with a discouraging number of investors currently willing to bet against Healthcare Services Group.

Find out more about how you can short Healthcare Services Group stock.

Healthcare Services Group share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 74.77% of net profits

Recently Healthcare Services Group has paid out, on average, around 74.77% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 3.42% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Healthcare Services Group shareholders could enjoy a 3.42% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Healthcare Services Group's case, that would currently equate to about $0.81 per share.

Healthcare Services Group's payout ratio would broadly be considered high, and as such this stock could appeal to those looking to generate an income. Bear in mind however that companies should normally also look to re-invest a decent amount of net profits to ensure future growth.

Healthcare Services Group's most recent dividend payout was on 25 September 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 20 August 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Healthcare Services Group's shares ever split?

Healthcare Services Group's shares were split on a 3:2 basis on 15 November 2010. So if you had owned 2 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 3 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Healthcare Services Group shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 33.3% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Healthcare Services Group shares which in turn could have impacted Healthcare Services Group's share price.

Healthcare Services Group share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Healthcare Services Group's shares have ranged in value from as little as $15.8 up to $31.3. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while Healthcare Services Group's is 0.4837. This would suggest that Healthcare Services Group's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).

Healthcare Services Group overview

Healthcare Services Group, Inc. provides management, administrative, and operating services to the housekeeping, laundry, linen, facility maintenance, and dietary service departments of nursing homes, retirement complexes, rehabilitation centers, and hospitals in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Housekeeping and Dietary. The Housekeeping segment engages in the cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing of resident rooms and common areas of client's facility, as well as laundering and processing of the bed linens, uniforms, resident personal clothing, and other assorted linen items utilized at a client's facility. The Dietary segment provides food purchasing, meal preparation, and professional dietitian services, which include the development of menus that meet the dietary needs of residents. This segment also offers clinical consulting services to facilities. As of December 31, 2019, the company provided its services to approximately 3,000 facilities. Healthcare Services Group, Inc. was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Healthcare Services Group is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 0.602% of Healthcare Services Group shares are held by insiders and 125.088% by institutions.

• How many people work for Healthcare Services Group?

  Latest data suggests 51,000 work at Healthcare Services Group.

• When does the fiscal year end for Healthcare Services Group?

  Healthcare Services Group's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is Healthcare Services Group based?

  Healthcare Services Group's address is: 3220 Tillman Drive, Bensalem, PA, United States, 19020

• What is Healthcare Services Group's ISIN number?

  Healthcare Services Group's international securities identification number is: US4219061086

• What is Healthcare Services Group's CUSIP number?

  Healthcare Services Group's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 421906108