Short Interest in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) Grows By 8.4%

Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,570,000 shares, a growth of 8.4% from the March 15th total of 5,140,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 933,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.0 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on HTGC. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. JMP Securities upped their target price on shares of Hercules Capital from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Hercules Capital from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Hercules Capital from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Compass Point cut shares of Hercules Capital from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their target price for the company from $17.00 to $17.50 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Hercules Capital currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $18.00.

Hercules Capital Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of HTGC stock traded up $0.16 on Wednesday, hitting $18.15. The stock had a trading volume of 726,103 shares, compared to its average volume of 913,048. Hercules Capital has a twelve month low of $12.40 and a twelve month high of $18.88. The firm has a market cap of $2.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.86 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a current ratio of 2.75, a quick ratio of 2.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $18.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $16.93.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $122.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.48 million. Hercules Capital had a net margin of 73.26% and a return on equity of 18.60%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 22.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.47 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Hercules Capital will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 6th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 28th were paid a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 10.58%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 27th. Hercules Capital's payout ratio is presently 69.26%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hercules Capital

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its stake in Hercules Capital by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 36,766 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $544,000 after purchasing an additional 607 shares during the period. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC boosted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 21,713 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $362,000 after buying an additional 617 shares during the last quarter. RMR Wealth Builders boosted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 15,481 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $254,000 after buying an additional 770 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 30.4% during the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 3,382 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 789 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Founders Financial Alliance LLC boosted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Founders Financial Alliance LLC now owns 22,742 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $301,000 after buying an additional 796 shares during the last quarter. 19.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Hercules Capital Company 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.