Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) Price Target Raised to $21.00

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC - Free Report) had its price objective lifted by Piper Sandler from $20.00 to $21.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the financial services provider's stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on HTGC. JMP Securities raised their price target on shares of Hercules Capital from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a market outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Hercules Capital from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Hercules Capital from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Compass Point downgraded Hercules Capital from a buy rating to a neutral rating and boosted their target price for the company from $17.00 to $17.50 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Hercules Capital currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $18.00.

Hercules Capital Stock Down 0.4 %

NYSE:HTGC traded down $0.07 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $18.34. 738,885 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 921,288. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $18.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.85. The firm has a market cap of $2.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.94 and a beta of 1.34. Hercules Capital has a fifty-two week low of $12.29 and a fifty-two week high of $18.88. The company has a current ratio of 2.75, a quick ratio of 2.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.06. Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 18.60% and a net margin of 73.26%. The firm had revenue of $122.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.48 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.47 earnings per share. Hercules Capital's quarterly revenue was up 22.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Hercules Capital will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Hercules Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 6th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 28th were issued a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 10.47%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 27th. Hercules Capital's dividend payout ratio is presently 69.26%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HTGC. Money Concepts Capital Corp lifted its holdings in Hercules Capital by 220.3% in the 4th quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp now owns 2,883 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 1,983 shares during the last quarter. ICA Group Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Hercules Capital in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of Hercules Capital in the fourth quarter worth $42,000. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SNC boosted its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 1,105.2% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SNC now owns 3,688 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 3,382 shares during the period. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 154.8% during the 1st quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 2,624 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 1,594 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.69% of the company's stock.

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.