New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) Reaches New 12-Month Low – Should You Sell?

Shares of New Mountain Finance Corporation (NASDAQ:NMFC) reached a new 52-week low during trading on Wednesday. The stock traded as low as $6.70 and last traded at $6.7250, with a volume of 26903 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $6.84.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on New Mountain Finance from $8.00 to $7.50 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of New Mountain Finance from $9.00 to $8.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of New Mountain Finance in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $8.25.

New Mountain Finance Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 3.66, a current ratio of 3.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $643.20 million, a PE ratio of -14.49 and a beta of 0.60. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $7.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $7.56.

New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.26. The business had revenue of $39.02 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.78 million. New Mountain Finance had a negative net margin of 16.78% and a positive return on equity of 10.94%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.32 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that New Mountain Finance Corporation will post 1.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

New Mountain Finance Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 14.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 16th. New Mountain Finance’s payout ratio is -212.77%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Corient Private Wealth LP increased its holdings in shares of New Mountain Finance by 29.2% in the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 1,125,657 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,071,000 after purchasing an additional 254,361 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of New Mountain Finance by 19.4% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,145,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,380,000 after acquiring an additional 348,872 shares during the period. Rivernorth Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of New Mountain Finance during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,008,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of New Mountain Finance in the fourth quarter valued at about $7,450,000. Finally, BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S increased its position in New Mountain Finance by 3.5% during the first quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 243,132 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,887,000 after purchasing an additional 8,116 shares during the last quarter. 32.08% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

New Mountain Finance Company Profile

New Mountain Finance Corporation is a business development company (BDC) that provides financing to established middle-market companies. The company primarily invests in privately held businesses through senior secured loans, unitranche loans, subordinated debt and other debt securities, and may also make equity investments.

New Mountain Finance generally focuses on companies with strong market positions, recurring revenue and experienced management teams. Its investments span a range of industries and are intended to support acquisitions, recapitalizations, growth initiatives and other corporate purposes.