Gladstone Investment (NASDAQ:GAIN) Trading Up 7.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Gladstone Investment Corporation (NASDAQ:GAIN)’s share price was up 7.1% during mid-day trading on Thursday after B. Riley Financial upgraded the stock from a neutral rating to a buy rating. B. Riley Financial now has a $16.50 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $14.50. Gladstone Investment traded as high as $17.00 and last traded at $16.8610. Approximately 214,783 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 33% from the average daily volume of 319,495 shares. The stock had previously closed at $15.74.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of Gladstone Investment by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 31,653 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $449,000 after buying an additional 717 shares during the period. Greenwood Gearhart LLC acquired a new position in shares of Gladstone Investment in the 1st quarter valued at about $254,000. Independent Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Gladstone Investment in the 1st quarter valued at about $355,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Gladstone Investment by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 20,460 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $286,000 after buying an additional 1,084 shares during the period. Finally, Abel Hall LLC acquired a new position in shares of Gladstone Investment in the 4th quarter valued at about $140,000. 11.85% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Gladstone Investment Stock Performance

The company’s fifty day moving average price is $14.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $14.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $661.57 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.54 and a beta of 0.81.

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

Gladstone Investment Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 23rd will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.8%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 23rd. Gladstone Investment’s payout ratio is presently 30.87%.

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.