Cerity Partners LLC Increases Holdings in New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC)

Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC) by 2.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,823,925 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 100,315 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in New Mountain Finance were worth $45,811,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in NMFC. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its stake in New Mountain Finance by 16.0% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 13,035 shares of the company’s stock valued at $165,000 after buying an additional 1,800 shares during the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co increased its stake in shares of New Mountain Finance by 27.8% in the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 101,576 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,288,000 after purchasing an additional 22,075 shares in the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of New Mountain Finance in the 1st quarter worth $52,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of New Mountain Finance in the 1st quarter worth $126,000. Finally, SVB Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of New Mountain Finance by 21.6% in the 1st quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 40,052 shares of the company’s stock worth $507,000 after purchasing an additional 7,125 shares in the last quarter. 32.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO John Kline acquired 41,550 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $10.92 per share, with a total value of $453,726.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 351,783 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,841,470.36. This trade represents a 13.39 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Steven B. Klinsky acquired 34,867 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $11.51 per share, with a total value of $401,319.17. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 4,056,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,688,289.24. The trade was a 0.87 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders acquired 227,026 shares of company stock worth $2,492,165. Corporate insiders own 10.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on New Mountain Finance from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th.

New Mountain Finance Trading Up 2.0 %

NASDAQ:NMFC opened at $11.76 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 2.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.20 and a beta of 1.15. New Mountain Finance Co. has a one year low of $10.61 and a one year high of $13.23. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $11.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $12.09.

New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by ($0.01). New Mountain Finance had a return on equity of 11.25% and a net margin of 30.28%. The business had revenue of $95.33 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.10 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.40 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that New Mountain Finance Co. will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

New Mountain Finance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a $0.33 dividend. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 11.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. This is a positive change from New Mountain Finance’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. New Mountain Finance’s dividend payout ratio is presently 121.91%.

New Mountain Finance Company Profile

New Mountain Finance Corporation (Nasdaq: NMFC), a business development company is a private equity / buyouts and loan fund specializes in directly investing and lending to middle market companies in defensive growth industries. The fund prefers investing in buyout and middle market companies. It also makes investments in debt securities at all levels of the capital structure including first and second lien debt, unsecured notes, and mezzanine securities.