New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.33 Per Share

New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 23rd,Zacks Dividends reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be given a dividend of 0.33 per share on Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.20%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. This is a positive change from New Mountain Finance’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32.

New Mountain Finance has a payout ratio of 92.1% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings fall. Analysts expect New Mountain Finance to earn $1.31 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.28 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 97.7%.

New Mountain Finance Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NMFC opened at $11.79 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.23, a current ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $11.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.01. The company has a market cap of $1.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.23 and a beta of 1.15. New Mountain Finance has a twelve month low of $10.61 and a twelve month high of $13.18.

New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.35 by ($0.01). New Mountain Finance had a net margin of 30.28% and a return on equity of 11.25%. The business had revenue of $95.33 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.10 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.40 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that New Mountain Finance will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of New Mountain Finance from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th.

Insider Activity at New Mountain Finance

In other New Mountain Finance news, Director Steven B. Klinsky bought 150,609 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $10.87 per share, with a total value of $1,637,119.83. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 3,632,326 shares in the company, valued at $39,483,383.62. The trade was a 4.33 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO John Kline purchased 41,550 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $10.92 per share, with a total value of $453,726.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 351,783 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,841,470.36. This trade represents a 13.39 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have bought 252,250 shares of company stock worth $2,788,357 over the last three months. Company insiders own 10.22% of the company’s stock.

About New Mountain Finance

New Mountain Finance Corporation (Nasdaq: NMFC), a business development company is a private equity / buyouts and loan fund specializes in directly investing and lending to middle market companies in defensive growth industries. The fund prefers investing in buyout and middle market companies. It also makes investments in debt securities at all levels of the capital structure including first and second lien debt, unsecured notes, and mezzanine securities.