Gladstone Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:GLAD) Short Interest Up 21.7% in March

Gladstone Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:GLAD) saw a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 562,240 shares, an increase of 21.7% from the March 15th total of 462,019 shares. Approximately 2.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 277,577 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.0 days.

Gladstone Capital Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of GLAD opened at $19.22 on Friday. Gladstone Capital has a twelve month low of $16.54 and a twelve month high of $29.50. The company has a market cap of $434.24 million, a P/E ratio of 12.09 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 0.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $18.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.58.

Gladstone Capital (NASDAQ:GLAD) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The investment management company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.02. Gladstone Capital had a net margin of 39.42% and a return on equity of 9.56%. The business had revenue of $24.51 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $24.70 million. As a group, analysts expect that Gladstone Capital will post 2.03 EPS for the current year.

Gladstone Capital Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 23rd will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 23rd. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.4%. Gladstone Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 113.21%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GLAD. UBS Group AG grew its holdings in shares of Gladstone Capital by 37.5% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 230,218 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $5,035,000 after purchasing an additional 62,738 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Gladstone Capital by 179.0% in the fourth quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 53,425 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,104,000 after purchasing an additional 34,278 shares during the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP grew its holdings in shares of Gladstone Capital by 107.7% in the fourth quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 59,185 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,223,000 after purchasing an additional 30,695 shares during the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Gladstone Capital in the fourth quarter worth about $551,000. Finally, Closed End Fund Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Gladstone Capital in the fourth quarter worth about $551,000. 10.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GLAD. Jefferies Financial Group set a $21.00 price target on shares of Gladstone Capital and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Gladstone Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 11th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Gladstone Capital in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $21.67.

Gladstone Capital Company Profile

Gladstone Capital Corporation is a publicly traded business development company (BDC) that provides debt and equity financing solutions to U.S. lower middle-market companies. Operating under an external management agreement with Gladstone Management L.P., the firm offers senior secured loans, mezzanine debt and equity investments designed to support growth initiatives, acquisitions and recapitalizations. Through its focus on privately held businesses, Gladstone Capital seeks to construct a diversified portfolio across various industry sectors.

Since its formation in 2003, Gladstone Capital has developed a track record of working closely with management teams and business owners to meet their capital needs.