Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) Director Acquires $106,620.00 in Stock

Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) Director Gayle Crowell bought 6,000 shares of Hercules Capital stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $17.77 per share, for a total transaction of $106,620.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 78,727 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,398,978.79. The trade was a 8.25% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Hercules Capital Price Performance

NYSE HTGC traded up $0.14 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $17.95. 1,294,529 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,177,791. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $18.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $18.41. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.65 and a 1 year high of $22.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.68. The company has a market cap of $3.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.88 and a beta of 0.96.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $138.09 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $136.95 million. Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 16.54% and a net margin of 51.46%.During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.51 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 1.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 19th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 93.02%.

Institutional Trading of Hercules Capital

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. CWM LLC lifted its stake in Hercules Capital by 79.6% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,381 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 612 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in Hercules Capital by 173.4% in the second quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,386 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 879 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Hercules Capital in the second quarter worth $27,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Hercules Capital in the first quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Alpine Bank Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Hercules Capital during the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on HTGC. JMP Securities raised their price objective on Hercules Capital from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Hercules Capital from $21.00 to $20.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Hercules Capital in a report on Friday. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Hercules Capital in a report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on Hercules Capital from $19.00 to $18.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Hercules Capital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $20.42.

About Hercules Capital

Hercules Capital, Inc is a business development company. The firm specializing in providing venture debt, debt, senior secured loans, and growth capital to privately held venture capital-backed companies at all stages of development from startups to expansion stage including select publicly listed companies and select special opportunity lower middle market companies that require additional capital to fund acquisitions, recapitalizations and refinancing and established-stage companies.