Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) Reaches New 12-Month Low – Here’s What Happened

Prospect Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:PSEC) shares reached a new 52-week low during trading on Monday. The stock traded as low as $2.11 and last traded at $2.1250, with a volume of 1584450 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $2.19.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on PSEC. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Prospect Capital from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 26th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Prospect Capital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Sell rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Sell” and an average target price of $2.00.

Prospect Capital Stock Performance

The stock has a 50-day moving average of $2.23 and a 200 day moving average of $2.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.50 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 20th. The financial services provider reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.04. Prospect Capital had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 12.15%. The company had revenue of $155.76 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $149.80 million.

Prospect Capital Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 28th will be issued a $0.0350 dividend. This represents a $0.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 19.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 28th. Prospect Capital’s payout ratio is 840.00%.

Insider Transactions at Prospect Capital

In other news, CEO John Barry. III bought 1,217,105 shares of Prospect Capital stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $2.24 per share, with a total value of $2,726,315.20. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 90,479,988 shares in the company, valued at $202,675,173.12. The trade was a 1.36% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 25.94% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prospect Capital

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Private Management Group Inc. grew its holdings in Prospect Capital by 51.7% during the second quarter. Private Management Group Inc. now owns 20,534,804 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $47,435,000 after purchasing an additional 6,999,513 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in Prospect Capital by 32.7% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 9,685,724 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $22,374,000 after acquiring an additional 2,388,990 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Prospect Capital in the second quarter valued at approximately $9,336,000. Independent Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Prospect Capital in the first quarter worth about $8,644,000. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in Prospect Capital by 0.4% during the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 1,711,638 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,467,000 after purchasing an additional 6,262 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 9.06% of the company’s stock.

Prospect Capital Company Profile

Prospect Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:PSEC) is a business development company that provides financing to middle-market businesses. The company primarily invests in privately held companies through first-lien and second-lien secured loans, unsecured debt, mezzanine financing and equity investments.

Prospect Capital generally works with companies across a range of industries and seeks to provide customized capital solutions for acquisitions, recapitalizations, refinancings, growth initiatives and other corporate purposes.