Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) Price Target Raised to $20.00

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) had its price target lifted by Compass Point from $18.25 to $20.00 in a report published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Compass Point currently has a neutral rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Hercules Capital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $19.50 to $21.50 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of Hercules Capital in a research report on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.40.

Hercules Capital Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of HTGC stock opened at $21.50 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $20.46 and a 200 day moving average of $19.67. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The stock has a market cap of $3.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.35 and a beta of 1.35. Hercules Capital has a twelve month low of $16.95 and a twelve month high of $22.04.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The financial services provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.49. The company had revenue of $121.78 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $124.09 million. Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 17.19% and a net margin of 53.28%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Hercules Capital will post 1.96 EPS for the current year.

Hercules Capital Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be paid a $0.47 dividend. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.75%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 26th. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 99.38%.

Institutional Trading of Hercules Capital

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 33,289 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $669,000 after acquiring an additional 810 shares during the last quarter. PharVision Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Hercules Capital in the fourth quarter worth approximately $203,000. Voloridge Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Hercules Capital in the fourth quarter worth approximately $7,755,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 205.7% in the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 1,406,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,265,000 after acquiring an additional 946,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP boosted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 106.7% in the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 945,849 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $19,002,000 after acquiring an additional 488,172 shares during the last quarter. 19.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Hercules Capital

Hercules Capital, Inc is a business development company. The firm specializing in providing venture debt, debt, senior secured loans, and growth capital to privately held venture capital-backed companies at all stages of development from startups to expansion stage including select publicly listed companies and select special opportunity lower middle market companies that require additional capital to fund acquisitions, recapitalizations and refinancing and established-stage companies.