New Mountain Finance Corporation (NASDAQ:NMFC) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.25

Key Points

• New Mountain Finance declared a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share, payable December 31 to shareholders of record December 17. The annualized dividend is $1.00, representing a 14.1% yield.
• The dividend is currently covered by earnings, with a 71.9% payout ratio; analysts expect coverage to remain adequate next year despite an anticipated payout ratio of 93.5%.
• Shares opened at $7.11, while analysts maintain a generally cautious view: four rate the stock Hold and one rates it Sell, producing an average “Reduce” rating and a $7.67 price target.

New Mountain Finance Corporation (NASDAQ:NMFC - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, November 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share on Thursday, December 31st. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 14.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 17th.

New Mountain Finance has a payout ratio of 71.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect New Mountain Finance to earn $1.07 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 93.5%.

New Mountain Finance Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NMFC opened at $7.11 on Tuesday. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $7.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $7.66. New Mountain Finance has a fifty-two week low of $6.47 and a fifty-two week high of $9.84. The company has a market capitalization of $671.54 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.13 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 3.66 and a quick ratio of 3.66.

New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 2nd. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.26. New Mountain Finance had a negative net margin of 16.78% and a positive return on equity of 10.94%. The firm had revenue of $60.41 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $61.07 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.32 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 25.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that New Mountain Finance will post 1.10 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NMFC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of New Mountain Finance from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "sell (d)" rating in a report on Thursday, October 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of New Mountain Finance from $9.00 to $8.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on New Mountain Finance from $8.00 to $7.50 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Reduce" and an average target price of $7.67.

About New Mountain Finance

New Mountain Finance Corporation NASDAQ: NMFC is a business development company that provides financing to middle-market businesses. The company is externally managed by New Mountain Finance Advisers, an affiliate of New Mountain Capital, an investment firm focused on growth-oriented companies in industries such as business services, healthcare, software and technology.

New Mountain Finance primarily invests in debt securities, including first-lien, unitranche, second-lien and unsecured loans.

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