Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. Makes New $632,000 Investment in SLR Investment Corp. $SLRC

Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new stake in shares of SLR Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:SLRC) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 40,875 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $632,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC boosted its position in shares of SLR Investment by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 30,599 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $474,000 after purchasing an additional 672 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in SLR Investment by 4.3% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 19,902 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $304,000 after purchasing an additional 824 shares during the last quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC lifted its stake in SLR Investment by 4.9% in the third quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC now owns 19,677 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $301,000 after buying an additional 915 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in SLR Investment by 4.5% in the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 36,820 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $563,000 after buying an additional 1,598 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its holdings in SLR Investment by 215.6% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,367 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 1,617 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 35.32% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of SLR Investment in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of SLR Investment from $13.00 to $12.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of SLR Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of SLR Investment from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on shares of SLR Investment from $16.50 to $15.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $15.29.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Michael S. Gross purchased 10,452 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $13.90 per share, with a total value of $145,282.80. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider owned 4,025,153 shares in the company, valued at $55,949,626.70. This represents a 0.26% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 8.80% of the company’s stock.

SLR Investment Price Performance

NASDAQ:SLRC opened at $14.60 on Friday. SLR Investment Corp. has a 1 year low of $13.64 and a 1 year high of $17.19. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $14.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $15.08. The stock has a market cap of $796.58 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.59 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

SLR Investment (NASDAQ:SLRC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. SLR Investment had a return on equity of 8.76% and a net margin of 42.34%.The company had revenue of $54.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $54.97 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that SLR Investment Corp. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

SLR Investment Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th were paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 11.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. SLR Investment’s dividend payout ratio is presently 96.47%.

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.