Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $19.83.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Hercules Capital from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th.

Hercules Capital Price Performance

Shares of HTGC opened at $19.13 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $3.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.47 and a beta of 1.39. Hercules Capital has a twelve month low of $15.14 and a twelve month high of $21.78. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The company has a 50 day moving average of $19.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.67.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.51. Hercules Capital had a net margin of 65.07% and a return on equity of 17.88%. The business had revenue of $125.25 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $125.80 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Hercules Capital will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 13th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 10.04%. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Scott Bluestein sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.59, for a total transaction of $1,959,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,161,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,338,045.13. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Hercules Capital in the second quarter valued at $31,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Hercules Capital in the third quarter valued at $31,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Hercules Capital by 59,650.0% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,390 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 2,386 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 2,067.0% during the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 353,221 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 336,921 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hexagon Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 38.8% during the second quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,994 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $102,000 after purchasing an additional 1,395 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.69% of the company’s stock.

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.