Latitude Advisors LLC Takes Position in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC)

Latitude Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 10,227 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $170,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sound Income Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in Hercules Capital by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,580,372 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $43,015,000 after buying an additional 59,263 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Hercules Capital by 6.1% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,033,429 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $33,389,000 after purchasing an additional 116,684 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Hercules Capital by 1,567.0% in 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. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of Hercules Capital by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,136,914 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $15,030,000 after buying an additional 32,831 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Hercules Capital by 1.7% during the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,032,341 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,956,000 after purchasing an additional 17,433 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on HTGC. JMP Securities upped their price target on shares of Hercules Capital from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Compass Point downgraded shares of Hercules Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $17.00 to $17.50 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. 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 report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Hercules Capital from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.00.

Hercules Capital Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE:HTGC opened at $18.15 on Thursday. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a one year low of $12.40 and a one year high of $18.88. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $18.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 2.75 and a current ratio of 2.75. The stock has a market cap of $2.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.86 and a beta of 1.34.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $122.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.48 million. Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 18.60% and a net margin of 73.26%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.47 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 10.58%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 27th. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 69.26%.

Hercules Capital Profile

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.