Chung Wu Investment Group LLC Purchases Shares of 15,178 Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC)

Chung Wu Investment Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 15,178 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $305,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its holdings in Hercules Capital by 13.6% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 94,122 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,891,000 after purchasing an additional 11,279 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 199.6% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 4,042 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $81,000 after acquiring an additional 2,693 shares during the last quarter. SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Hercules Capital in the fourth quarter worth $735,000. Muzinich & Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Muzinich & Co. Inc. now owns 449,996 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,040,000 after acquiring an additional 41,634 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Hercules Capital in the fourth quarter worth $319,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on HTGC shares. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of Hercules Capital in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Hercules Capital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $19.50 to $21.50 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Compass Point raised their target price on Hercules Capital from $18.25 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.40.

Hercules Capital Stock Performance

Hercules Capital stock opened at $19.05 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $20.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $19.80. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a 12-month low of $16.95 and a 12-month high of $22.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.83 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 earnings per share (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 business 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 1.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 26th were given a $0.47 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 26th. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.87%. Hercules Capital’s payout ratio is 99.38%.

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.