Kforce (NASDAQ:KFRC) Sees Large Volume Increase – Time to Buy?

Shares of Kforce Inc. (NASDAQ:KFRC) saw unusually-high trading volume on Tuesday . Approximately 272,212 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 157% from the previous session’s volume of 105,930 shares.The stock last traded at $54.57 and had previously closed at $53.57.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on KFRC. Sidoti upgraded shares of Kforce from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $71.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. StockNews.com raised shares of Kforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.75.

Kforce Trading Up 1.2 %

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $61.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $62.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.69 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 2.33, a current ratio of 2.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Kforce (NASDAQ:KFRC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The business services provider reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.02. Kforce had a return on equity of 34.89% and a net margin of 3.56%. The company had revenue of $356.32 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $356.20 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.95 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Kforce Inc. will post 2.7 EPS for the current year.

Kforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.76%. Kforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.51%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kforce

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KFRC. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Kforce by 10.8% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 10,722 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $660,000 after purchasing an additional 1,043 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in shares of Kforce by 3.8% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 98,253 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,038,000 after buying an additional 3,560 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Kforce by 259.5% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,535 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $95,000 after acquiring an additional 1,108 shares in the last quarter. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Kforce in the third quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Annex Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in Kforce by 35.6% during the 3rd quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 12,211 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $750,000 after acquiring an additional 3,203 shares in the last quarter. 92.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Kforce Company Profile

Kforce Inc provides professional staffing services and solutions in the United States. It operates through two segments, Technology, and Finance and Accounting (FA). The Technology segment provides talent solutions to its clients primarily in the areas of information technology, such as systems/applications architecture and development, data management and analytics, business and artificial intelligence, machine learning, project and program management, and network architecture and security.