GWN Securities Inc. Takes $244,000 Position in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC)

GWN Securities Inc. bought a new stake in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 11,587 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $244,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of HTGC. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,438,447 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $69,078,000 after purchasing an additional 323,028 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 1,909.0% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 327,467 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,579,000 after purchasing an additional 311,167 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Hercules Capital in the fourth quarter valued at $3,281,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Hercules Capital in the fourth quarter valued at $2,324,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 28.0% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 387,225 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,667,000 after purchasing an additional 84,780 shares in the last quarter. 19.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HTGC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Compass Point raised their target price on shares of Hercules Capital from $18.25 to $20.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of Hercules Capital in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Hercules Capital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $19.50 to $21.50 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.40.

Hercules Capital Stock Up 1.8 %

NYSE HTGC opened at $18.84 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.70 and a beta of 1.38. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a 52 week low of $16.95 and a 52 week high of $22.04. 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 company has a fifty day moving average of $20.40 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.80.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last issued its 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. The firm had revenue of $121.78 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $124.09 million. Hercules Capital had a net margin of 53.28% and a return on equity of 17.19%. On average, analysts predict that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Hercules Capital Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th were paid a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.98%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 26th. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 99.38%.

About Hercules Capital

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.