96,700 Shares in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) Purchased by Pennington Partners & CO. LLC

Pennington Partners & CO. LLC bought a new position in shares of Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 96,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,943,000. Hercules Capital comprises 1.0% of Pennington Partners & CO. LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest holding.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in shares of Hercules Capital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $14,871,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in shares of Hercules Capital by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,438,447 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $69,078,000 after acquiring an additional 323,028 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its position in Hercules Capital by 1,909.0% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 327,467 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,579,000 after purchasing an additional 311,167 shares during the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Hercules Capital during the 4th quarter valued at about $5,016,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Hercules Capital in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,281,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.69% of the company’s stock.

Hercules Capital Stock Down 0.2 %

HTGC stock opened at $17.87 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $18.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.45. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a 52-week low of $15.65 and a 52-week high of $22.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.10 and a beta of 1.13.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The financial services provider reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.01). Hercules Capital had a net margin of 53.28% and a return on equity of 17.19%. The business had revenue of $102.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $125.43 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.50 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 1.96 EPS for the current year.

Hercules Capital Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.96%. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 99.38%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on HTGC. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Hercules Capital from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of Hercules Capital in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Hercules Capital from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Compass Point raised their price objective on shares of Hercules Capital from $18.25 to $20.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Hercules Capital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.92.

Hercules Capital Profile

Hercules Capital, Inc is a business development company. The firm specializing in providing venture debt, debt, senior secured loans, and growth capital to privately held venture capital-backed companies at all stages of development from startups to expansion stage including select publicly listed companies and select special opportunity lower middle market companies that require additional capital to fund acquisitions, recapitalizations and refinancing and established-stage companies.