Paloma Partners Management Co Makes New Investment in New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC)

Paloma Partners Management Co purchased a new position in shares of New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 29,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $351,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in NMFC. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of New Mountain Finance by 21.6% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,080,602 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,467,000 after buying an additional 369,695 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of New Mountain Finance by 1,017.3% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 374,487 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,486,000 after purchasing an additional 340,969 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of New Mountain Finance by 78.5% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 314,058 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,839,000 after purchasing an additional 138,157 shares during the last quarter. Tranquility Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of New Mountain Finance by 37.2% in the 2nd quarter. Tranquility Partners LLC now owns 388,753 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,763,000 after purchasing an additional 105,433 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of New Mountain Finance by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 3,823,925 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,811,000 after purchasing an additional 100,315 shares during the last quarter. 32.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of New Mountain Finance from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th.

New Mountain Finance Stock Performance

Shares of NMFC opened at $11.86 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $11.59 and its 200-day moving average is $12.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.30 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 2.23. New Mountain Finance Co. has a 12-month low of $10.61 and a 12-month high of $13.23.

New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.35 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $95.33 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.10 million. New Mountain Finance had a return on equity of 11.25% and a net margin of 30.28%. The business’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.40 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that New Mountain Finance Co. will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

New Mountain Finance Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.33 per share. This is a boost from New Mountain Finance’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. New Mountain Finance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 121.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling at New Mountain Finance

In related news, CEO John Kline acquired 41,550 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $10.92 per share, for a total transaction of $453,726.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 351,783 shares in the company, valued at $3,841,470.36. This represents a 13.39 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Steven B. Klinsky acquired 150,609 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $10.87 per share, for a total transaction of $1,637,119.83. Following the purchase, the director now owns 3,632,326 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,483,383.62. This trade represents a 4.33 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have purchased 229,426 shares of company stock worth $2,520,341. 10.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

New Mountain Finance Company Profile

New Mountain Finance Corporation (Nasdaq: NMFC), a business development company is a private equity / buyouts and loan fund specializes in directly investing and lending to middle market companies in defensive growth industries. The fund prefers investing in buyout and middle market companies. It also makes investments in debt securities at all levels of the capital structure including first and second lien debt, unsecured notes, and mezzanine securities.