Royal Bank of Canada Buys 23,783 Shares of Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC)

Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC - Free Report) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 788,353 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 23,783 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned about 0.49% of Hercules Capital worth $15,839,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,438,447 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $69,078,000 after purchasing an additional 323,028 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Hercules Capital by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 1,018,210 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $20,456,000 after buying an additional 62,610 shares in the last quarter. Melia Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Hercules Capital by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Melia Wealth LLC now owns 760,359 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $15,276,000 after buying an additional 16,786 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in Hercules Capital during the fourth quarter worth $14,871,000. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its stake in Hercules Capital by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 670,674 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $13,474,000 after buying an additional 15,836 shares in the last quarter. 19.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Hercules Capital Price Performance

Hercules Capital stock traded up $0.19 on Friday, reaching $17.62. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,305,142 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,102,178. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 2.72. The company has a market cap of $3.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.94 and a beta of 0.97. The business's fifty day moving average price is $17.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $19.12. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a twelve month low of $15.65 and a twelve month high of $22.04.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The financial services provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.01). Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 17.19% and a net margin of 53.28%. The company had revenue of $102.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $125.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.50 earnings per share. Hercules Capital's revenue for the quarter was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.08%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. Hercules Capital's dividend payout ratio is 120.30%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Nikos Theodosopoulos acquired 5,999 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $17.49 per share, for a total transaction of $104,922.51. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 11,960 shares in the company, valued at $209,180.40. This trade represents a 100.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.90% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of Hercules Capital in a report on Friday, February 14th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Hercules Capital from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on Hercules Capital from $21.50 to $20.50 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Compass Point boosted their price target on Hercules Capital from $18.25 to $20.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Hercules Capital currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $19.92.

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.