Recaps · August 14, 2026

HHS, August 14: a halt, a $5.00 deal headline, and $4.99

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Gap and hold
• Catalyst: acquisition news
• Halt reopen
• Halted once
• Lower high

Float

6.74 million shares

Volume

2.72 million shares

Previous close

$2.81

Open

$4.22 (up 50.2%)

High

$4.99 at 9:02 a.m.

Halts

1 (8:25 a.m.)

Close

$4.28

The day before

On August 13, HHS traded between $2.74 and $3.22 on 47,655 shares. The official close was $2.81.

The halt and the reopen

The only pre-market trade before the halt was one share at $2.91 at 4:04 a.m. At 8:25 a.m. the stock was halted (news pending), with $2.91 as the last trade.

During the halt, at 8:30 a.m., two headlines came out. GlobeNewsWire: “Star Equity Holdings Enters Into Merger Agreement to Acquire Harte Hanks”. Accesswire: “Harte Hanks Enters Definitive Agreement to Be Acquired by Star Equity Holdings for $5.00 Per Share”.

It reopened at 9:00 a.m. at $4.55, 56% above the last trade before the halt.

The 9:00 minute went up to $4.88. The high so far was $4.99 at 9:02 a.m., before the bell. Then it slid. By the 9:04 minute it had dipped to $4.61. 1.43 million shares traded before the open.

The open and the drift

At 9:30 the first print was 27,852 shares at $4.22. It opened at $4.22, 50% above the $2.81 previous close and 15% below the pre-market high.

It drifted down to $4.08 at 9:35 a.m., 18% under $4.99. After that it settled into a narrow range around $4.30.

The wall at $4.50

At 10:09 a large ask showed up at exactly $4.50. It was 34,044 shares, about 0.5% of the float, across all exchanges.

At 10:10 a.m. Business Wire ran: “HHS Stock Alert: Halper Sadeh LLC is Investigating Whether Harte Hanks, Inc. is Obtaining a Fair Price for its Shareholders”.

Here is what the tape did. At 10:11 it pushed to $4.50 on 38,036 shares, a lower high under the $4.99 top. At 10:12:26 a buy of 10,547 shares went through $4.48 to $4.50 in three price levels. By 10:17 it was back to $4.35.

The bid at $4.27

The rest of the morning and the early afternoon were slow, in a band between about $4.22 and $4.49. Many minutes traded only a few hundred shares.

From 3:41 p.m. on, a large bid sat at exactly $4.27.

Starting at 3:45:55, shares began trading at $4.27 into the bid. In 5.6 seconds, 48,073 shares traded at exactly $4.27 and the bid was gone. It wasn't pulled. The shares traded. One print alone was 39,784 shares. The bid had grown to 48,289 shares at 3:45:53. The 3:46 minute closed at $4.24 on 54,026 shares. It touched $4.22 at 3:48 and was back to $4.30 by 3:52.

The close and after hours

The last regular-session minute (3:59) closed at $4.28, 14% under the $4.99 high. That high came before the bell, at 9:02 a.m., 18% above the open.

By the close, 1.24 million shares had traded in the regular session. Counting pre-market and after hours, 2.72 million shares changed hands: about 0.4 times the 6.74-million-share float, at about 411 times its normal volume.

At 4:48 p.m., after the close, PRNewsWire ran: “Shareholder Alert: Ademi LLP investigates whether Harte Hanks, Inc. is obtaining a Fair Price for Public Shareholders”. At 5:08 p.m. the company filed a 10-Q (the quarterly report). After hours, the stock traded between $4.21 and $4.35.

What to take from it

• A halt can reopen far above where it stopped, and the first seconds cost more than the screen says. The stock stopped at $2.91 and reopened at $4.55. A 5,000-share buy one second later averaged $4.81 against $4.55 on screen.
• After the top, the next push stopped lower. $4.99 at 9:02 a.m., then $4.50 at 10:11 a.m. It never traded above $4.50 again.
• A big resting order can disappear by trading, not by being pulled. The $4.27 bid was filled in 5.6 seconds.