18,837 Shares in Hercules Capital, Inc. $HTGC Purchased by Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ

Key Points

• Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB acquired a new stake in Hercules Capital, purchasing 18,837 shares valued at approximately $362,000 during the first quarter.
• Hercules Capital recently increased its quarterly dividend from $0.40 to $0.47, offering an annual yield of 9.6% despite a payout ratio of over 100%.
• Analysts have positive outlooks for Hercules Capital, with target price adjustments raising expectations to between $20.00 and $24.00, indicating a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy."

Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ acquired a new stake in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 18,837 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $362,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ameriflex Group Inc. acquired a new position in Hercules Capital in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Hercules Capital in the first quarter valued at $30,000. Bessemer Group Inc. acquired a new position in Hercules Capital in the first quarter valued at $38,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake in Hercules Capital by 51.8% in the first quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 2,629 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in Hercules Capital in the fourth quarter valued at $80,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.69% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. JMP Securities upped their price objective on shares of Hercules Capital from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Hercules Capital from $18.50 to $19.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Citigroup reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Hercules Capital in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $20.58.

Hercules Capital Stock Performance

NYSE HTGC traded up $0.06 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $19.36. 541,559 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,181,797. The company has a market cap of $3.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.82 and a beta of 0.95. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a 12-month low of $15.65 and a 12-month high of $22.04. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $19.08 and a 200 day moving average of $18.60. The company has a quick ratio of 1.68, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $137.46 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $129.47 million. Hercules Capital had a net margin of 51.46% and a return on equity of 16.54%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.51 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Hercules Capital Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 19th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 12th were issued a dividend of $0.47 per share. This is an increase from Hercules Capital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. Hercules Capital's dividend payout ratio is currently 105.96%.

Hercules Capital Profile

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.