Runway Growth Finance Corp. (NASDAQ:RWAY) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of Runway Growth Finance Corp. (NASDAQ:RWAY) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eight research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $11.96.

RWAY has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Compass Point raised shares of Runway Growth Finance from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $12.75 to $11.25 in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Runway Growth Finance from $12.50 to $11.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Runway Growth Finance from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on Runway Growth Finance in a research report on Friday, June 28th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $12.00 price target on the stock.

Runway Growth Finance Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:RWAY opened at $10.28 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $10.77 and a 200-day moving average of $11.60. Runway Growth Finance has a one year low of $9.87 and a one year high of $13.74. The stock has a market cap of $396.29 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.35 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63.

Runway Growth Finance (NASDAQ:RWAY) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.06). Runway Growth Finance had a net margin of 19.32% and a return on equity of 13.67%. The business had revenue of $34.19 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $37.62 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.49 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Runway Growth Finance will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Runway Growth Finance Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 26th. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th were issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 17.51%. Runway Growth Finance’s payout ratio is presently 145.45%.

Insider Activity at Runway Growth Finance

In other Runway Growth Finance news, CEO R David Spreng purchased 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 14th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $10.17 per share, for a total transaction of $50,850.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 69,532 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $707,140.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. MGO One Seven LLC lifted its position in shares of Runway Growth Finance by 28.8% in the second quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 469,001 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,515,000 after buying an additional 104,822 shares during the last quarter. Norden Group LLC lifted its holdings in Runway Growth Finance by 729.8% during the 1st quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 118,650 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,438,000 after purchasing an additional 104,352 shares during the last quarter. Monashee Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Runway Growth Finance during the fourth quarter worth $1,158,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Runway Growth Finance by 289.2% in the fourth quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 114,105 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,439,000 after purchasing an additional 84,790 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HTLF Bank bought a new position in shares of Runway Growth Finance in the second quarter valued at about $439,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.61% of the company’s stock.

About Runway Growth Finance

Runway Growth Finance Corp. is a business development company specializing investments in senior-secured loans to late stage and growth companies. It prefers to make investments in companies engaged in the technology, life sciences, healthcare and information services, business services and select consumer services and products sectors.