HireQuest Inc. Common Stock (DE) (HQI)

FairStock Score: 38/100 — MIXED

Key Financials

AI Analysis

AI-generated, general educational analysis — not personal investment advice.

I look at HireQuest as a small staffing business with $29.0M of FY2025 revenue and $6.3M of net income, yet only 88 employees. That profit margin is attractive, but staffing is a competitive, cyclical field with little pricing power; I see no durable moat. The latest filed quarter, fiscal Q2 2026 ended 2026-06-30, showed revenue of $7.6M, net income of $2.7M, and diluted EPS of $0.19, versus fiscal Q2 2025 revenue of $7.3M, net income of $1.1M, and EPS of $0.08. So profit is improving sharply, but revenue is only inching up. Full-year FY2025 revenue was $29.0M, below FY2024’s $32.7M and FY2023’s $35.8M, while FY2025 net income of $6.3M exceeded FY2024’s $3.7M. FairStock calls it a slow grower: profit compounded at 3.4% a year over five years while revenue grew 17.8%. Financial health looks respectable: trailing free cash flow of $9.5M, a 3.9% FCF yield, an Altman Z-Score of 7.01, and a Piotroski score of 6/9. Returns are only moderate, with ROE of 12.49% and ROCE of 6.16%. The price concern is valuation. At $17.31 on 2026-10-13, the P/E is 28.85, P/B is 3.49, EV/EBITDA is 19.19, and the Graham Number is $8.18, implying a margin of safety of -111.61%. Even with a PEG of 0.19, that low figure relies on a profit growth spurt from a weak base. I would want a wider discount before calling this a value opportunity.

In plain English: HireQuest supplies workers to businesses, including industrial, construction, clerical, and driver staffing. The business has been profitable, and recent quarterly profits were better than a year earlier, but overall revenue has been uneven. At $17.31, the shares look expensive compared with the company’s reported profits, accounting value, and a conservative asset-based estimate, so the price does not appear to offer a bargain.

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Data as of 2026-10-13 close · note generated 2026-10-15 · model deepseek-flash

Sources (SEC EDGAR): fiscal Q2 2026 10-Q (period ended 2026-06-30) · fiscal Q1 2026 10-Q (period ended 2026-03-31) · fiscal Q3 2025 10-Q (period ended 2025-09-30) · fiscal Q2 2025 10-Q (period ended 2025-06-30) · FY2025 10-K (period ended 2025-12-31) · FY2024 10-K (period ended 2024-12-31) · FY2023 10-K (period ended 2023-12-31)

Fundamentals from company filings and market-data providers; prices are end-of-day, not real-time. AI-generated analysis is general and educational — not personal investment advice. Scoring methodology · Score test · Disclaimer