Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) Rating Increased to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Friday morning.

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Prospect Capital from $5.50 to $5.75 and gave the company an underweight rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th.

Prospect Capital Stock Performance

Shares of PSEC stock opened at $5.24 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -26.20 and a beta of 1.00. Prospect Capital has a 52 week low of $5.03 and a 52 week high of $6.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $5.49 and a 200-day moving average of $5.70.

Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $210.94 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $226.14 million. Prospect Capital had a negative net margin of 1.47% and a positive return on equity of 13.48%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Prospect Capital will post 0.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Prospect Capital Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 21st. Investors of record on Friday, April 26th will be given a $0.06 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 13.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 25th. Prospect Capital’s payout ratio is currently -360.00%.

Insider Activity at Prospect Capital

In related news, CFO Dask Kristin Lea Van purchased 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $5.44 per share, with a total value of $27,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,400. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 26.69% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prospect Capital

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Prospect Capital by 26.1% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 6,161,151 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $36,905,000 after purchasing an additional 1,276,762 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management increased its position in shares of Prospect Capital by 17.2% during the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,035,654 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $12,194,000 after purchasing an additional 298,400 shares during the last quarter. XML Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Prospect Capital by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 1,384,395 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,376,000 after purchasing an additional 59,551 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Prospect Capital by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 614,524 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,718,000 after purchasing an additional 40,375 shares during the last quarter. Finally, J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Prospect Capital by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 567,771 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,435,000 after purchasing an additional 7,431 shares during the last quarter. 9.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Prospect Capital

Prospect Capital Corporation is a business development company. It specializes in middle market, mature, mezzanine finance, later stage, emerging growth, leveraged buyouts, refinancing, acquisitions, recapitalizations, turnaround, growth capital, development, capital expenditures and subordinated debt tranches of collateralized loan obligations, cash flow term loans, market place lending and bridge transactions.