Prospect Capital Co. Declares Monthly Dividend of $0.05 (NASDAQ:PSEC)

Prospect Capital Co. (NASDAQ:PSEC) announced a monthly dividend on Tuesday, February 11th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th will be paid a dividend of 0.045 per share by the financial services provider on Tuesday, May 20th. This represents a $0.54 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 12.51%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 28th.

Prospect Capital has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 2.1% annually over the last three years. Prospect Capital has a payout ratio of 114.9% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments.

Prospect Capital Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PSEC traded up $0.03 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $4.32. 464,228 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,484,280. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.48. Prospect Capital has a 52-week low of $4.09 and a 52-week high of $5.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.60 and a beta of 0.99. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $4.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $4.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO M Grier Eliasek bought 210,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $4.81 per share, for a total transaction of $1,010,100.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,131,130 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,250,735.30. This represents a 10.93 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO John F. Barry purchased 205,900 shares of Prospect Capital stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were bought at an average price of $4.40 per share, with a total value of $905,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 72,612,839 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $319,496,491.60. This represents a 0.28 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have acquired 5,273,173 shares of company stock worth $23,701,420. 27.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com raised Prospect Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th.

About Prospect Capital

Prospect Capital Corporation is a business development company. It specializes in middle market, mature, mezzanine finance, later stage, emerging growth, leveraged buyouts, refinancing, acquisitions, recapitalizations, turnaround, growth capital, development, capital expenditures and subordinated debt tranches of collateralized loan obligations, cash flow term loans, market place lending and bridge transactions.