Zacks Research Downgrades Gladstone Investment (NASDAQ:GAIN) to Strong Sell

Gladstone Investment (NASDAQ:GAIN) was downgraded by investment analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

GAIN has been the topic of several other reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Gladstone Investment in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Gladstone Investment from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

Gladstone Investment Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GAIN opened at $13.89 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $553.10 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.47 and a beta of 0.84. Gladstone Investment has a one year low of $11.42 and a one year high of $15.34. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $13.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $13.94.

Gladstone Investment (NASDAQ:GAIN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The investment management company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.24 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $25.06 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.83 million. Gladstone Investment had a return on equity of 6.77% and a net margin of 118.55%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Gladstone Investment will post 0.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Gladstone Investment

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GAIN. Raymond James Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Gladstone Investment by 2.0% in the second quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 40,857 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $583,000 after purchasing an additional 814 shares in the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL grew its position in Gladstone Investment by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 169,571 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $2,420,000 after buying an additional 1,135 shares in the last quarter. Outfitter Financial LLC increased its stake in Gladstone Investment by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Outfitter Financial LLC now owns 202,295 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $2,887,000 after buying an additional 1,150 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Gladstone Investment by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 19,626 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $262,000 after buying an additional 1,150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Gladstone Investment by 36.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,249 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $100,000 after acquiring an additional 1,945 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 11.85% of the company’s stock.

About Gladstone Investment

Gladstone Investment (NASDAQ: GAIN) is a publicly traded business development company (BDC) that focuses on providing debt and equity financing to U.S. middle-market companies. As an externally managed closed-end fund, Gladstone Investment seeks to generate current income and capital appreciation for its shareholders by originating senior secured debt, subordinated debt and equity investments. The firm typically targets established businesses with revenues between $10 million and $150 million, across a range of industry sectors including business services, health care, industrials and specialty manufacturing.

The company’s investment strategy centers on deploying capital through first-lien and second-lien term loans, mezzanine debt and equity co-investments, often including warrants or other equity kickers.