SLR Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:SLRC) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of SLR Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:SLRC) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have given a hold recommendation, two have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $16.0357.

SLRC has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of SLR Investment in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of SLR Investment from $17.00 to $16.50 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised SLR Investment from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SLR Investment

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of SLR Investment by 0.8% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,342,415 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $20,526,000 after buying an additional 11,052 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of SLR Investment by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,195,136 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $18,274,000 after buying an additional 74,983 shares during the period. UBS Group AG raised its position in shares of SLR Investment by 15.5% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 577,728 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,932,000 after purchasing an additional 77,705 shares during the period. Muzinich & Co. Inc. lifted its position in SLR Investment by 37.4% in the 4th quarter. Muzinich & Co. Inc. now owns 534,336 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,261,000 after acquiring an additional 145,323 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Epiq Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of SLR Investment by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Epiq Partners LLC now owns 417,128 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,449,000 after purchasing an additional 24,338 shares during the last quarter. 35.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

SLR Investment Stock Performance

NASDAQ SLRC opened at $14.96 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $15.50 and its 200-day moving average is $15.66. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. SLR Investment has a one year low of $13.64 and a one year high of $17.94.

SLR Investment (NASDAQ:SLRC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The financial services provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.41 by ($0.01). SLR Investment had a net margin of 41.00% and a return on equity of 8.98%. The firm had revenue of $56.99 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $56.33 million. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that SLR Investment will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SLR Investment Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 12th were given a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 12th. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.0%. SLR Investment’s payout ratio is presently 99.39%.

About SLR Investment

SLR Investment Corp. (NASDAQ: SLRC) is a closed‐end, externally managed business development company that provides customized debt and equity financing solutions to middle‐market companies. The firm seeks to generate current income and capital appreciation by investing primarily in senior secured loans, second lien financings, mezzanine debt and equity co‐investments. Its flexible capital approach allows it to structure financing across the capital structure to address a range of sponsor‐backed transactions.

SLR Investment Corp.