PennantPark Floating Rate Capital (NYSE:PFLT) Rating Lowered to Strong Sell at Zacks Research

Key Points

• Zacks Research cut PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from “hold” to “strong sell”, adding to a mixed analyst picture for the stock.
• Despite the downgrade, the broader analyst consensus remains “Moderate Buy” with a $10.00 target price; the stock recently opened at $8.65 and trades below its 200-day average.
• The company missed Q1 earnings estimates, reporting $0.27 EPS versus the expected $0.28, while insiders have been buying shares and institutional investors continue to hold significant positions.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital (NYSE:PFLT - Get Free Report) was downgraded by research analysts at Zacks Research from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Citizens Jmp dropped their target price on PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from $11.00 to $10.00 and set a "market outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, March 28th. Maxim Group set a $10.50 price target on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from $10.50 to $10.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital in a research report on Friday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $10.00.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Stock Performance

NYSE:PFLT opened at $8.65 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $8.43 and a 200 day moving average of $8.91. The company has a market capitalization of $857.76 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.94 and a beta of 0.78. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital has a 1-year low of $7.68 and a 1-year high of $10.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.18 and a quick ratio of 0.15.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital (NYSE:PFLT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $44.81 million during the quarter. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital had a return on equity of 9.95% and a net margin of 23.08%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that PennantPark Floating Rate Capital will post 1.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at PennantPark Floating Rate Capital

In related news, Director Jose A. Briones acquired 5,770 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $8.67 per share, for a total transaction of $50,025.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 348,083 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,017,879.61. This trade represents a 1.69% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard T. Allorto, Jr. acquired 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was bought at an average price of $8.15 per share, with a total value of $122,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 25,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $203,750. The trade was a 150.00% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders acquired 26,665 shares of company stock valued at $222,266 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Sound Income Strategies LLC lifted its position in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 4,643,958 shares of the company's stock valued at $44,257,000 after purchasing an additional 512,528 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 81.2% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 147,213 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,309,000 after purchasing an additional 65,977 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 7.4% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,533,205 shares of the company's stock valued at $22,520,000 after acquiring an additional 174,630 shares in the last quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 693.2% during the fourth quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC now owns 123,880 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,173,000 after acquiring an additional 108,263 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MQS Management LLC bought a new position in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital during the third quarter valued at approximately $835,000. Institutional investors own 19.77% of the company's stock.

About PennantPark Floating Rate Capital

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. is a business development company. It seeks to make secondary direct, debt, equity, and loan investments. The fund seeks to invest through floating rate loans in private or thinly traded or small market-cap, public middle market companies. It primarily invests in the United States and to a limited extent non-U.S. companies. The fund typically invests between $2 million and $20 million. The fund also invests in equity securities, such as preferred stock, common stock, warrants or options received in connection with debt investments or through direct investments.

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