Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) Shares Acquired by Two Sigma Advisers LP

Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its position in shares of Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) by 205.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,406,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 946,700 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP’s holdings in Hercules Capital were worth $28,265,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Two Sigma Investments LP boosted its position in Hercules Capital by 106.7% in the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 945,849 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $19,002,000 after buying an additional 488,172 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 78,870 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,584,000 after acquiring an additional 2,608 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in Hercules Capital by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 788,353 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $15,839,000 after purchasing an additional 23,783 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in Hercules Capital during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $80,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC grew its stake in Hercules Capital by 17.3% during the 4th quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 26,966 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $542,000 after purchasing an additional 3,970 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on HTGC. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Hercules Capital from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price target on shares of Hercules Capital in a report on Friday, February 14th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Hercules Capital from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on shares of Hercules Capital from $21.50 to $20.50 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Compass Point increased their price target on shares of Hercules Capital from $18.25 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.92.

Hercules Capital Stock Performance

Hercules Capital stock opened at $17.87 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.10 and a beta of 0.97. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.65 and a 1 year high of $22.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $17.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $19.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 2.72.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The financial services provider reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.46 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $102.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $125.43 million. Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 17.19% and a net margin of 53.28%. The business’s revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.50 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 1.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. Hercules Capital’s payout ratio is presently 120.30%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hercules Capital

In other Hercules Capital news, Director Nikos Theodosopoulos bought 5,999 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $17.49 per share, with a total value of $104,922.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $209,180.40. The trade was a 100.64% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 1.90% of the company’s stock.

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.