Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) Reaches New 12-Month Low – What’s Next?

Prospect Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:PSEC)’s stock price reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Monday. The stock traded as low as $1.98 and last traded at $1.9750, with a volume of 547158 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $2.00.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on PSEC. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Prospect Capital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 22nd. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Prospect Capital from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Sell rating, According to MarketBeat, Prospect Capital has an average rating of “Sell” and an average price target of $2.00.

Prospect Capital Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $976.89 million, a PE ratio of 36.60 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $2.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $2.34.

Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 20th. The financial services provider reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $155.76 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $149.80 million. Prospect Capital had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 12.15%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Prospect Capital Corporation will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Prospect Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 28th will be given a $0.0350 dividend. This represents a $0.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 23.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 28th. Prospect Capital’s payout ratio is currently 840.00%.

Insider Transactions at Prospect Capital

In other news, CEO John Barry. III bought 1,217,105 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $2.24 per share, with a total value of $2,726,315.20. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer owned 90,479,988 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $202,675,173.12. The trade was a 1.36% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 25.94% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prospect Capital

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PSEC. WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new position in Prospect Capital during the second quarter worth about $35,000. GTS Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Prospect Capital in the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. Private Management Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Prospect Capital by 51.7% during the 2nd quarter. Private Management Group Inc. now owns 20,534,804 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $47,435,000 after acquiring an additional 6,999,513 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Prospect Capital by 32.7% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 9,685,724 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $22,374,000 after acquiring an additional 2,388,990 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kingsview Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Prospect Capital during the 2nd quarter worth about $49,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 9.06% of the company’s stock.

Prospect Capital Company Profile

Prospect Capital Corporation is a business development company that provides financing to privately held, middle-market companies. The company primarily invests in first-lien and second-lien loans, subordinated debt, and other debt and equity securities. Its investments are designed to support acquisitions, recapitalizations, growth initiatives, refinancings, and other corporate purposes.

Through its investment platform, Prospect Capital also participates in specialized finance and structured investment activities, including investments in real estate-related assets and other operating businesses.