Blue Owl Capital Corporation (NYSE:OBDC) Short Interest Up 40.5% in March

Blue Owl Capital Corporation (NYSE:OBDC) was the target of a large growth in short interest in March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 18,489,414 shares, a growth of 40.5% from the February 26th total of 13,158,793 shares. Approximately 3.7% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 7,544,335 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Blue Owl Capital

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Blue Owl Capital by 6.0% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 13,364,378 shares of the company’s stock worth $170,663,000 after purchasing an additional 757,203 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in Blue Owl Capital by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 13,275,411 shares of the company’s stock valued at $169,527,000 after buying an additional 811,973 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG boosted its position in Blue Owl Capital by 40.6% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 8,528,672 shares of the company’s stock valued at $106,011,000 after buying an additional 2,463,080 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in Blue Owl Capital by 13.7% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 5,454,128 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,005,000 after buying an additional 659,025 shares during the period. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC grew its holdings in Blue Owl Capital by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 3,779,901 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,665,000 after acquiring an additional 387,347 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 42.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

OBDC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their target price on Blue Owl Capital from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 20th. Zacks Research raised shares of Blue Owl Capital from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Blue Owl Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Blue Owl Capital from $13.50 to $12.50 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Blue Owl Capital from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $14.06.

Blue Owl Capital Price Performance

OBDC traded down $0.27 on Friday, reaching $10.85. The company had a trading volume of 6,969,477 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,558,508. Blue Owl Capital has a 52-week low of $10.70 and a 52-week high of $15.31. The company has a market cap of $5.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.75 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.17. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $12.41.

Blue Owl Capital (NYSE:OBDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $439.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $454.38 million. Blue Owl Capital had a net margin of 33.89% and a return on equity of 10.07%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blue Owl Capital will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

Blue Owl Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be given a $0.37 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 31st. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 13.6%. Blue Owl Capital’s payout ratio is 119.35%.

Blue Owl Capital declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 18th that permits the company to repurchase $300.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 5.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

About Blue Owl Capital

Blue Owl Capital Corporation (NYSE: OBDC) is a publicly traded business development company sponsored by Blue Owl Capital, a global alternative asset manager. Launched in 2020, the firm provides customized financing solutions to middle-market companies across various industries. As an externally managed BDC, Blue Owl Capital Corporation leverages the deep credit‐investment capabilities of its sponsor to deliver flexible capital tailored to the needs of growing businesses.

The company’s investment activities span a range of private credit products, including first‐lien senior secured loans, unitranche facilities, second‐lien financings, mezzanine debt, and minority equity co-investments.