PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. (NYSE:PFLT) Stock Has Average Target Price of $9.60

Shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. (NYSE:PFLT) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has assigned a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $9.60.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Thursday, October 8th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $8.50 target price (down from $9.50) on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital in a report on Friday, October 9th. Finally, Zacks Research raised PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 20th.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Trading Up 3.6%

NYSE PFLT opened at $6.42 on Tuesday. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital has a one year low of $6.15 and a one year high of $9.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.19 and a current ratio of 0.19. The company has a market capitalization of $636.50 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.73 and a beta of 0.80. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $7.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $7.59.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital (NYSE:PFLT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.27 by ($0.01). PennantPark Floating Rate Capital had a return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 18.53%. The business had revenue of $66.09 million during the quarter. Equities analysts forecast that PennantPark Floating Rate Capital will post 1.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 15th will be given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 15.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 15th. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital’s payout ratio is presently 188.24%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PennantPark Floating Rate Capital

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sound Income Strategies LLC grew its stake in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 6.4% in the first quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 4,940,809 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,576,000 after purchasing an additional 296,851 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 37.0% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,473,706 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,503,000 after acquiring an additional 668,394 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital during the second quarter valued at approximately $6,061,000. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,811,000. Finally, NewEdge Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 3.5% during the first quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 177,682 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,429,000 after purchasing an additional 5,938 shares in the last quarter. 19.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Company Profile

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. (NYSE: PFLT) is a business development company that invests in privately owned, middle-market companies. Its investment portfolio is focused primarily on floating-rate, senior secured loans, particularly first-lien and unitranche debt, although it may also make select junior debt and equity investments.

The company seeks to provide financing to businesses across a range of industries, generally working with companies that may have limited access to traditional bank lending.