Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) COO Acquires $1,002,700.00 in Stock

Key Points

• M Grier Eliasek, COO of Prospect Capital, purchased 370,000 shares at an average price of $2.71, totaling approximately $1 million, which increased his ownership of the company to over 2.5 million shares.
• Prospect Capital recently declared a monthly dividend of $0.045 per share, with an annualized yield of 20.5%, set to be paid on November 18th to investors recorded by October 29th.
• Despite a quarterly earnings beat with an EPS of $0.17, Prospect Capital has received a generally negative evaluation from analysts, including a target price reduction from $3.00 to $2.50 by Wells Fargo.

Prospect Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:PSEC - Get Free Report) COO M Grier Eliasek bought 370,000 shares of Prospect Capital stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $2.71 per share, with a total value of $1,002,700.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief operating officer owned 2,501,130 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,778,062.30. This represents a 17.36% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Prospect Capital Stock Performance

Shares of PSEC stock traded up $0.03 during trading on Monday, hitting $2.64. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,354,275 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,222,427. Prospect Capital Corporation has a 52 week low of $2.57 and a 52 week high of $5.41. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The business has a fifty day moving average of $2.91 and a 200-day moving average of $3.33. The company has a market cap of $1.23 billion, a PE ratio of -1.97 and a beta of 0.85.

Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.04. Prospect Capital had a positive return on equity of 12.14% and a negative net margin of 69.68%.The business had revenue of $166.95 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $167.08 million.

Prospect Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 29th will be paid a $0.045 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 29th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 20.5%. Prospect Capital's dividend payout ratio is presently -40.30%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prospect Capital

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PSEC. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Prospect Capital during the second quarter valued at about $344,000. Tactive Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Prospect Capital during the second quarter valued at about $1,864,000. Caxton Associates LLP grew its stake in shares of Prospect Capital by 86.5% during the second quarter. Caxton Associates LLP now owns 690,059 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,194,000 after buying an additional 319,984 shares during the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co grew its stake in shares of Prospect Capital by 5.2% during the second quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 319,545 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,015,000 after buying an additional 15,909 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors grew its stake in shares of Prospect Capital by 92.2% during the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 24,568 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $78,000 after buying an additional 11,788 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 9.06% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on PSEC. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Prospect Capital from $3.00 to $2.50 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 28th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Prospect Capital from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Sell rating, According to MarketBeat, Prospect Capital presently has an average rating of "Sell" and an average target price of $2.50.

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.

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