Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $18.00.

HTGC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. JMP Securities upped their price objective on Hercules Capital from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Hercules Capital from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Compass Point cut Hercules Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $17.00 to $17.50 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Hercules Capital from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its position in shares of Hercules Capital by 2.9% during the first quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,654,119 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $48,968,000 after buying an additional 73,747 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in Hercules Capital by 18.8% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,414,747 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $40,254,000 after purchasing an additional 381,318 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Hercules Capital by 1,567.0% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,345,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $22,433,000 after purchasing an additional 1,265,008 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Hercules Capital by 2.4% during the third quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 1,006,309 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,524,000 after purchasing an additional 23,157 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Melia Wealth LLC boosted its position in Hercules Capital by 5.5% during the first quarter. Melia Wealth LLC now owns 691,540 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $12,759,000 after purchasing an additional 36,325 shares during the last quarter. 19.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Hercules Capital Trading Up 0.9 %

HTGC stock opened at $18.86 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.16 and a beta of 1.34. Hercules Capital has a twelve month low of $12.40 and a twelve month high of $18.92. The company has a quick ratio of 2.75, a current ratio of 2.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The business has a fifty day moving average of $18.28 and a 200-day moving average of $17.01.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $122.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.48 million. Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 18.60% and a net margin of 73.26%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 22.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.47 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Hercules Capital will post 2.05 EPS for the current year.

Hercules Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 28th were given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 27th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 10.18%. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 69.26%.

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.