D.A. Davidson & CO. Purchases 5,333 Shares of Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC)

D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its position in shares of Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 289,183 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,333 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Hercules Capital were worth $5,810,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Truist Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Hercules Capital by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 33,122 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $665,000 after buying an additional 1,322 shares in the last quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV grew its position in shares of Hercules Capital by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 92,447 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,857,000 after buying an additional 799 shares in the last quarter. Autumn Glory Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 41.4% during the 4th quarter. Autumn Glory Partners LLC now owns 20,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $412,000 after purchasing an additional 6,000 shares during the last quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,259 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,251,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,438,447 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $69,078,000 after purchasing an additional 323,028 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 19.69% of the company’s stock.

Hercules Capital Trading Up 1.4 %

Hercules Capital stock opened at $22.01 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $20.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 2.72. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a one year low of $16.95 and a one year high of $22.04. The stock has a market cap of $3.81 billion, a PE ratio of 13.67 and a beta of 1.35.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The financial services provider reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49. Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 17.19% and a net margin of 53.28%. The company had revenue of $121.78 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $124.09 million. On average, research analysts anticipate that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 1.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be issued a $0.47 dividend. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 26th. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 99.38%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HTGC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Compass Point upped their price objective on Hercules Capital from $18.25 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Hercules Capital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $19.50 to $21.50 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of Hercules Capital in a research note on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.40.

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.