Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $20.08.

HTGC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Hercules Capital from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. UBS Group raised their target price on Hercules Capital from $18.50 to $19.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on Hercules Capital from $21.50 to $20.50 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their target price on Hercules Capital from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hercules Capital

In related news, Director Nikos Theodosopoulos bought 5,999 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $17.49 per share, for a total transaction of $104,922.51. Following the purchase, the director owned 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $209,180.40. This trade represents a 100.64% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Hercules Capital in the second quarter valued at approximately $522,447,000. Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 1.9% in the second quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,930,340 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $53,567,000 after buying an additional 55,885 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 205.7% in the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 1,406,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,265,000 after buying an additional 946,700 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 14.5% in the first quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 1,130,362 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $21,714,000 after buying an additional 143,042 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Advisors Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 1,018,210 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $20,456,000 after buying an additional 62,610 shares in the last quarter. 19.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Hercules Capital Stock Performance

Shares of HTGC opened at $18.92 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $18.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $18.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.32 billion, a PE ratio of 14.23 and a beta of 0.93. Hercules Capital has a 1 year low of $15.65 and a 1 year high of $22.04.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last issued 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). Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 16.84% and a net margin of 45.23%. The business had revenue of $102.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $125.43 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.50 EPS. Hercules Capital’s revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Hercules Capital will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 19th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be given a dividend of $0.47 per share. This is a positive change from Hercules Capital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.94%. Hercules Capital’s payout ratio is 120.30%.

About Hercules Capital

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.