Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA Buys New Holdings in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC)

Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 34,050 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $684,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in Hercules Capital by 1.7% in the third quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc now owns 34,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $685,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,259 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,251,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 2.7% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 27,319 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $540,000 after purchasing an additional 711 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 3.7% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 21,215 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $417,000 after purchasing an additional 763 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV lifted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 92,447 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,857,000 after purchasing an additional 799 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on HTGC. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of Hercules Capital in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Compass Point lifted their target price on Hercules Capital from $18.25 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Hercules Capital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $19.50 to $21.50 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.40.

Hercules Capital Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of Hercules Capital stock opened at $21.40 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The firm has a market cap of $3.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.29 and a beta of 1.35. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $16.95 and a fifty-two week high of $22.04. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $20.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $19.71.

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

Hercules Capital Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be issued a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 26th. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 99.38%.

Hercules Capital Company 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.