Prospect Capital Co. Plans Dividend of $0.05 (NASDAQ:PSEC)

Prospect Capital Co. (NASDAQ:PSEC - Get Free Report) announced a dividend on Tuesday, May 6th, investing.com reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 26th will be given a dividend of 0.045 per share by the financial services provider on Tuesday, July 22nd. This represents a yield of 15.88%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 26th.

Prospect Capital has decreased its dividend by an average of 2.1% annually over the last three years. Prospect Capital has a payout ratio of 114.9% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments.

Prospect Capital Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:PSEC traded up $0.01 during trading on Friday, reaching $3.25. 4,573,539 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,944,670. The stock has a market cap of $1.45 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.25 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $3.63 and a two-hundred day moving average of $4.12. Prospect Capital has a 52-week low of $3.21 and a 52-week high of $5.67.

Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $170.72 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $174.29 million. Prospect Capital had a return on equity of 12.31% and a net margin of 1.18%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on PSEC. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Prospect Capital from $3.50 to $3.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 12th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Prospect Capital from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, April 12th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Prospect Capital

In other Prospect Capital news, Director William Gremp acquired 19,100 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $4.29 per share, with a total value of $81,939.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 75,153 shares in the company, valued at $322,406.37. This represents a 34.07% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO John F. Barry bought 2,000,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $4.32 per share, with a total value of $8,640,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 81,501,933 shares of the company's stock, valued at $352,088,350.56. This trade represents a 2.52% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders purchased 2,548,000 shares of company stock worth $10,970,715. Insiders own 28.25% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Prospect Capital stock. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Prospect Capital Co. (NASDAQ:PSEC - Free Report) by 29.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 393,034 shares of the financial services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 89,139 shares during the quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. owned about 0.09% of Prospect Capital worth $1,611,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 9.06% of the company's stock.

About Prospect Capital

Prospect Capital Corporation is a business development company. It specializes in middle market, mature, mezzanine finance, later stage, emerging growth, leveraged buyouts, refinancing, acquisitions, recapitalizations, turnaround, growth capital, development, capital expenditures and subordinated debt tranches of collateralized loan obligations, cash flow term loans, market place lending and bridge transactions.