PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. (NYSE:PFLT) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. (NYSE:PFLT) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation, four have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $9.80.

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital in a report on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 28th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from $10.00 to $9.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Finally, Citizens Jmp lowered their price target on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from $11.00 to $10.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Stock Down 0.1%

PFLT stock opened at $7.48 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $8.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $8.72. The company has a market capitalization of $741.77 million, a P/E ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.18 and a quick ratio of 0.18. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital has a 12 month low of $7.42 and a 12 month high of $10.88.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital (NYSE:PFLT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $44.81 million during the quarter. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital had a net margin of 23.08% and a return on equity of 9.95%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that PennantPark Floating Rate Capital will post 1.08 earnings per share for the current year.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.0833 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 13.4%. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital’s dividend payout ratio is 154.84%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Jose A. Briones acquired 5,770 shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $8.67 per share, for a total transaction of $50,025.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 348,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,017,879.61. The trade was a 1.69% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PennantPark Floating Rate Capital

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Quarry LP acquired a new position in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital during the third quarter worth $36,000. McIlrath & Eck LLC raised its position in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 177.9% during the first quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 4,689 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 3,002 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. acquired a new position in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital during the second quarter worth $41,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets acquired a new position in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital during the second quarter worth $55,000. 19.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About PennantPark Floating Rate Capital

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. is a business development company. It seeks to make secondary direct, debt, equity, and loan investments. The fund seeks to invest through floating rate loans in private or thinly traded or small market-cap, public middle market companies. It primarily invests in the United States and to a limited extent non-U.S. companies. The fund typically invests between $2 million and $20 million. The fund also invests in equity securities, such as preferred stock, common stock, warrants or options received in connection with debt investments or through direct investments.