Saratoga Investment Corp. (SAR) to Issue Monthly Dividend of $0.25 on June 24th

Saratoga Investment Corp. (NYSE:SAR) declared a monthly dividend on Wednesday, February 19th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 5th will be given a dividend of 0.25 per share by the financial services provider on Tuesday, June 24th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 12.20%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 5th. This is a 1.3% increase from Saratoga Investment’s previous monthly dividend of $0.25.

Saratoga Investment Price Performance

Shares of SAR opened at $24.59 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Saratoga Investment has a fifty-two week low of $21.10 and a fifty-two week high of $26.49. The company has a market cap of $377.83 million, a P/E ratio of 9.92 and a beta of 0.65. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $24.01 and its 200 day moving average price is $24.48.

Saratoga Investment (NYSE:SAR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by ($0.21). Saratoga Investment had a net margin of 22.01% and a return on equity of 15.53%. The company had revenue of $31.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $32.86 million. On average, research analysts forecast that Saratoga Investment will post 3.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on SAR. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Saratoga Investment from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. B. Riley initiated coverage on shares of Saratoga Investment in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $23.50 price objective on the stock. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $24.58.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Saratoga Investment

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Saratoga Investment stock. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in shares of Saratoga Investment Corp. (NYSE:SAR) by 4.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 23,476 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,018 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned about 0.15% of Saratoga Investment worth $595,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Institutional investors own 19.09% of the company’s stock.

About Saratoga Investment

Saratoga Investment Corp. is a business development company specializing in leveraged and management buyouts, acquisition financings, growth financings, recapitalization, debt refinancing, and transitional financing transactions at the lower end of middle market companies. It structures its investments as debt and equity by investing through first and second lien loans, mezzanine debt, co-investments, select high yield bonds, senior secured bonds, unsecured bonds, and preferred and common equity.