PennantPark Floating Rate Capital (NYSE:PFLT) Upgraded by Zacks Research to “Hold” Rating

Zacks Research upgraded shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital (NYSE:PFLT) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on PFLT. Truist Financial dropped their price target on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from $10.00 to $9.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 19th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital in a report on Friday, May 8th. Citizens Jmp lowered their price objective on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from $11.00 to $10.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $9.80.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Stock Performance

Shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital stock opened at $7.12 on Monday. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital has a 52 week low of $6.93 and a 52 week high of $10.78. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $7.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $8.41. The firm has a market cap of $706.94 million, a PE ratio of 11.49 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital (NYSE:PFLT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.01). PennantPark Floating Rate Capital had a return on equity of 9.95% and a net margin of 23.08%.The business had revenue of $44.81 million for the quarter. Equities analysts forecast that PennantPark Floating Rate Capital will post 1.08 earnings per share for the current year.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a special dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 15th will be given a $0.0033 dividend. This represents a yield of 55.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 15th. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital’s payout ratio is currently 154.84%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PennantPark Floating Rate Capital news, Director Jose A. Briones purchased 5,770 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $8.67 per share, for a total transaction of $50,025.90. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 348,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,017,879.61. This trade represents a 1.69% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PFLT. Sound Income Strategies LLC increased its stake in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 4,940,809 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,576,000 after buying an additional 296,851 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 42.9% during the 3rd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,057,399 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,290,000 after buying an additional 617,657 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG boosted its position in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,367,442 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,676,000 after buying an additional 71,372 shares during the period. Altshuler Shaham Ltd boosted its position in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 44.1% in the 4th quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 1,320,156 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,238,000 after buying an additional 404,117 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 17.3% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,262,880 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,227,000 after acquiring an additional 186,570 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.77% of the company’s stock.

About PennantPark Floating Rate Capital

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. is a business development company. It seeks to make secondary direct, debt, equity, and loan investments. The fund seeks to invest through floating rate loans in private or thinly traded or small market-cap, public middle market companies. It primarily invests in the United States and to a limited extent non-U.S. companies. The fund typically invests between $2 million and $20 million. The fund also invests in equity securities, such as preferred stock, common stock, warrants or options received in connection with debt investments or through direct investments.