Saratoga Investment Corp. (NYSE:SAR) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.25 Per Share

Saratoga Investment Corp. (NYSE:SAR) declared a monthly dividend on Thursday, February 20th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 5th will be paid a dividend of 0.25 per share by the financial services provider on Tuesday, June 24th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.66%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 5th. This is a boost from Saratoga Investment’s previous monthly dividend of $0.25.

Saratoga Investment Stock Up 1.5 %

SAR stock opened at $25.74 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $24.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.08. Saratoga Investment has a 52-week low of $21.56 and a 52-week high of $26.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.33 and a quick ratio of 0.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $369.27 million, a P/E ratio of 10.38 and a beta of 1.34.

Saratoga Investment (NYSE:SAR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.08. Saratoga Investment had a net margin of 22.01% and a return on equity of 15.53%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Saratoga Investment will post 3.93 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on SAR shares. Compass Point decreased their price objective on Saratoga Investment from $26.25 to $25.25 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Saratoga Investment from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, January 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $25.08.

Saratoga Investment Company Profile

Saratoga Investment Corp. is a business development company specializing in leveraged and management buyouts, acquisition financings, growth financings, recapitalization, debt refinancing, and transitional financing transactions at the lower end of middle market companies. It structures its investments as debt and equity by investing through first and second lien loans, mezzanine debt, co-investments, select high yield bonds, senior secured bonds, unsecured bonds, and preferred and common equity.