Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) Short Interest Update

Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,210,000 shares, a growth of 35.3% from the February 28th total of 4,590,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,180,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.3 days. Approximately 3.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on HTGC shares. Compass Point upped 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. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of Hercules Capital in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of 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 research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Hercules Capital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.40.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hercules Capital

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. grew its holdings in Hercules Capital by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 138,364 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,780,000 after buying an additional 496 shares during the period. Morse Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of 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 worth $685,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Hercules Capital by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,259 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,251,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the period. Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC raised its stake in Hercules Capital by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC now owns 27,417 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $551,000 after purchasing an additional 665 shares during the period. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 21,215 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $417,000 after purchasing an additional 763 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.69% of the company’s stock.

Hercules Capital Price Performance

Hercules Capital stock traded down $0.12 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $19.10. 1,191,064 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,006,869. The company has a market capitalization of $3.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.86 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 2.72. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $20.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.82. Hercules Capital has a 1 year low of $16.95 and a 1 year high of $22.04.

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

Hercules Capital Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th were issued a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.85%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 26th. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.