Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) Short Interest Up 8.4% in March

Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,570,000 shares, an increase of 8.4% from the March 15th total of 5,140,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 933,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.0 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hercules Capital

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its stake in Hercules Capital by 1.7% in the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 36,766 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $544,000 after buying an additional 607 shares during the period. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC lifted its stake in Hercules Capital by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 21,713 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $362,000 after buying an additional 617 shares during the period. RMR Wealth Builders lifted its stake in Hercules Capital by 5.2% in the third quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 15,481 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $254,000 after buying an additional 770 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in Hercules Capital by 30.4% in the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 3,382 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 789 shares during the period. Finally, Founders Financial Alliance LLC lifted its stake in Hercules Capital by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Founders Financial Alliance LLC now owns 22,742 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $301,000 after buying an additional 796 shares during the period. 19.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

HTGC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Hercules Capital from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on 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 lowered Hercules Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $17.00 to $17.50 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Hercules Capital from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Hercules Capital presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $18.00.

Hercules Capital Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of HTGC stock traded up $0.03 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $17.99. 1,225,085 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 783,296. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $18.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.92. 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 company has a market cap of $2.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.79 and a beta of 1.34. Hercules Capital has a 1-year low of $12.40 and a 1-year high of $18.88.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $122.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.47 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Hercules Capital will post 2.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 6th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 28th were paid a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 10.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 27th. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 69.26%.

Hercules Capital Company 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.