Gladstone Investment (NASDAQ:GAIN) Upgraded to “Buy” at B. Riley Financial

Gladstone Investment (NASDAQ:GAIN) was upgraded by equities research analysts at B. Riley Financial from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Thursday. The firm currently has a $16.50 target price on the investment management company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $14.50. B. Riley Financial’s price target suggests a potential upside of 4.83% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on GAIN. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Gladstone Investment in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Gladstone Investment from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 7th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Gladstone Investment from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Gladstone Investment has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.50.

Gladstone Investment Trading Down 7.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:GAIN opened at $15.74 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $626.77 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 0.81. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $14.28. Gladstone Investment has a 1 year low of $13.11 and a 1 year high of $17.14.

Gladstone Investment (NASDAQ:GAIN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 12th. The investment management company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by ($0.02). Gladstone Investment had a net margin of 186.47% and a return on equity of 6.41%. The business had revenue of $25.19 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.80 million. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Gladstone Investment will post 0.89 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Gladstone Investment

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. UBS Group AG lifted its position in Gladstone Investment by 89.6% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 484,848 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $6,701,000 after buying an additional 229,192 shares in the last quarter. PFG Advisors boosted its stake in Gladstone Investment by 206.0% in the fourth quarter. PFG Advisors now owns 305,248 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $4,264,000 after acquiring an additional 205,504 shares during the last quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in Gladstone Investment by 395.5% in the fourth quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 88,410 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $1,235,000 after purchasing an additional 70,566 shares during the last quarter. Melia Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Gladstone Investment by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Melia Wealth LLC now owns 1,197,594 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $16,551,000 after acquiring an additional 64,564 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. bought a new position in Gladstone Investment during the second quarter worth about $735,000. 11.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.