Prospect Capital Co. Announces Dividend of $0.05 (NASDAQ:PSEC)

Prospect Capital Co. (NASDAQ:PSEC) announced a dividend on Wednesday, May 28th, investing.com reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 29th will be paid a dividend of 0.045 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, June 18th. This represents a yield of 16.46%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 28th.

Prospect Capital has decreased its dividend by an average of 2.1% per year over the last three years. Prospect Capital has a payout ratio of 114.9% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments.

Prospect Capital Price Performance

NASDAQ PSEC opened at $3.28 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $3.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $4.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.40 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Prospect Capital has a 1-year low of $3.27 and a 1-year high of $5.67.

Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.05. Prospect Capital had a return on equity of 12.31% and a net margin of 1.18%. The firm had revenue of $170.72 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $174.29 million.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on PSEC shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Prospect Capital from $3.50 to $3.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 12th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Prospect Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 12th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William Gremp acquired 19,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 18th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $4.29 per share, for a total transaction of $81,939.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 75,153 shares in the company, valued at approximately $322,406.37. This trade represents a 34.07% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO John F. Barry acquired 240,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $4.20 per share, with a total value of $1,008,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 81,981,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $344,324,118.60. This represents a 0.29% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders acquired 2,548,000 shares of company stock worth $10,970,715. Corporate insiders own 28.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Prospect Capital stock. Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in Prospect Capital Co. (NASDAQ:PSEC) by 140.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 88,397 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 51,562 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Prospect Capital were worth $362,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. 9.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Prospect Capital Company Profile

Prospect Capital Corporation is a business development company. It specializes in middle market, mature, mezzanine finance, later stage, emerging growth, leveraged buyouts, refinancing, acquisitions, recapitalizations, turnaround, growth capital, development, capital expenditures and subordinated debt tranches of collateralized loan obligations, cash flow term loans, market place lending and bridge transactions.