PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. (NYSE:PFLT) Stock Rated “Moderate Buy” by Sell-Side Brokerages

Shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. (NYSE:PFLT) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has issued a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $9.60.

Several equities analysts have weighed in on PFLT shares. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $8.50 target price (down from $9.50) on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital in a report on Friday, October 9th. Zacks Research raised PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE:PFLT opened at $6.37 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $7.01 and its 200 day moving average price is $7.59. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital has a 52 week low of $6.15 and a 52 week high of $9.75. The company has a market capitalization of $632.22 million, a P/E ratio of 12.49 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.19 and a current ratio of 0.19.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital (NYSE:PFLT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by ($0.01). PennantPark Floating Rate Capital had a net margin of 18.53% and a return on equity of 10.24%. The business had revenue of $66.09 million for the quarter. On average, research analysts forecast that PennantPark Floating Rate Capital will post 1.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 15th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 15th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 15.1%. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital’s payout ratio is currently 188.24%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PennantPark Floating Rate Capital

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PFLT. Sovran Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 37,801 shares of the company’s stock worth $304,000 after purchasing an additional 1,337 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its holdings in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 4.1% during the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 41,802 shares of the company’s stock worth $336,000 after buying an additional 1,661 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 2.4% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 69,941 shares of the company’s stock worth $562,000 after buying an additional 1,663 shares during the last quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 3,002 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. bought a new stake in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital in the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. 19.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About PennantPark Floating Rate Capital

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. (NYSE: PFLT) is a business development company that invests in privately owned, middle-market companies. Its investment portfolio is focused primarily on floating-rate, senior secured loans, particularly first-lien and unitranche debt, although it may also make select junior debt and equity investments.

The company seeks to provide financing to businesses across a range of industries, generally working with companies that may have limited access to traditional bank lending.