Advisors Asset Management Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. reduced its position in shares of Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) by 0.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 406,191 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 794 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Hercules Capital were worth $8,160,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Avior Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 177.2% in the 4th quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,802 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 1,152 shares during the last quarter. Archer Investment Corp lifted its position in Hercules Capital by 345.4% in the fourth quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 2,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 1,803 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Hercules Capital by 45.6% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 4,086 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $80,000 after buying an additional 1,279 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its position in shares of Hercules Capital by 199.6% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 4,042 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $81,000 after acquiring an additional 2,693 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC raised its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 86.6% in the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 6,634 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $133,000 after acquiring an additional 3,079 shares during the period. 19.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on HTGC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Hercules Capital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $19.50 to $21.50 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of Hercules Capital in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Compass Point raised their target price on Hercules Capital from $18.25 to $20.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.40.

Hercules Capital Stock Up 0.5 %

Hercules Capital stock opened at $18.94 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.76 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a twelve month low of $16.95 and a twelve month high of $22.04. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.80.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The financial services provider reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49. Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 17.19% and a net margin of 53.28%. The company had revenue of $121.78 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $124.09 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th were issued a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.93%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 26th. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 99.38%.

Hercules Capital Profile

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.