Saratoga Investment Corp. is a business development company specializing in leveraged and management buyouts, acquisition financings, growth financings, recapitalization, debt refinancing, and transitional financing transactions at the lower end of middle market companies. It structures its investments as debt and equity by investing through first and second lien loans, mezzanine debt, co-investments, select high yield bonds, senior secured bonds, unsecured bonds, and preferred and common equity. The firm prefers to invest in aerospace, automotive aftermarket and services, business products and services, consumer products and services, education, environmental services, industrial services, financial services, food and beverage, healthcare products and services, logistics, distribution, manufacturing, restaurants services, food services, software services, technology services, specialty chemical, media and telecommunications. It seeks to invest in the United States. The firm primarily invests $5 million to $50 million in companies having EBITDA of $2 million or greater and revenues of $8 million to $250 million. The firm prefer to take a majority stake. It invests through direct lending as well as participation in loan syndicates. The firm was formerly known as GSC Investment Corp. Saratoga Investment Corp. is based in New York, New York with an additional office in Florham Park, New Jersey.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of research firms recently weighed in on SAR. Compass Point dropped their target price on Saratoga Investment to $29.00 and set a "na" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 16th. Hovde Group dropped their target price on Saratoga Investment to $28.00 in a research report on Friday, May 20th. Raymond James dropped their target price on Saratoga Investment from $31.00 to $28.50 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 8th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Saratoga Investment from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $29.50.
Saratoga Investment Trading Down 2.0 %
Saratoga Investment stock traded down $0.50 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $24.56. The company had a trading volume of 21,532 shares, compared to its average volume of 39,007. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 0.17 and a quick ratio of 0.17. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $24.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.93. The firm has a market cap of $293.00 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.16 and a beta of 1.37. Saratoga Investment has a 12-month low of $22.35 and a 12-month high of $30.25.
Saratoga Investment (NYSE:SAR - Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 6th. The financial services provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $18.68 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $18.79 million. Saratoga Investment had a return on equity of 7.56% and a net margin of 31.95%. Equities analysts forecast that Saratoga Investment will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.
Saratoga Investment Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 29th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 14th were paid a dividend of $0.53 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 13th. This represents a $2.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.63%. Saratoga Investment's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 104.95%.
Insider Activity
In other Saratoga Investment news, Director Steven M. Looney bought 1,250 shares of Saratoga Investment stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 2nd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $23.54 per share, with a total value of $29,425.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 3,758 shares of the company's stock, valued at $88,463.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 14.00% of the company's stock.