New Mountain Finance Corporation (NASDAQ:NMFC) Stock Now Rated “Reduce” by Wall Street Brokerages

Shares of New Mountain Finance Corporation (NASDAQ:NMFC) have been given an average recommendation of “Reduce” by the six brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and four have given a hold recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $7.50.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on NMFC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on New Mountain Finance from $9.00 to $8.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 20th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of New Mountain Finance from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a report on Thursday, October 8th. Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating on shares of New Mountain Finance in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on New Mountain Finance from $7.50 to $7.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday.

Institutional Trading of New Mountain Finance

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NMFC. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of New Mountain Finance by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,425,503 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,864,000 after purchasing an additional 42,332 shares during the last quarter. StoneX Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of New Mountain Finance during the 3rd quarter valued at $109,000. GraniteShares Advisors LLC increased its stake in New Mountain Finance by 27.7% in the 3rd quarter. GraniteShares Advisors LLC now owns 387,410 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,681,000 after acquiring an additional 84,083 shares during the last quarter. SMH Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in New Mountain Finance during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $174,000. Finally, State of Wyoming purchased a new position in shares of New Mountain Finance in the 3rd quarter valued at about $338,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 32.08% of the company’s stock.

New Mountain Finance Price Performance

NASDAQ NMFC opened at $6.91 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.66, a quick ratio of 3.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. The stock has a market cap of $652.65 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.80 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $7.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $7.62. New Mountain Finance has a 52 week low of $6.47 and a 52 week high of $9.84.

New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 2nd. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26. New Mountain Finance had a negative net margin of 21.29% and a positive return on equity of 10.52%. The firm had revenue of $60.41 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $61.07 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.32 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 25.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that New Mountain Finance will post 1.08 EPS for the current year.

New Mountain Finance Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 31st. Investors of record on Thursday, December 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 17th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 14.5%. New Mountain Finance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -185.19%.

New Mountain Finance Company Profile

New Mountain Finance Corporation (NASDAQ: NMFC) is a business development company that provides financing to middle-market businesses. The company is externally managed by New Mountain Finance Advisers, an affiliate of New Mountain Capital, an investment firm focused on growth-oriented companies in industries such as business services, healthcare, software and technology.

New Mountain Finance primarily invests in debt securities, including first-lien, unitranche, second-lien and unsecured loans.