Hercules Capital Inc (NYSE:HTGC) – Equities research analysts at B. Riley boosted their Q3 2020 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for Hercules Capital in a report issued on Friday, February 21st. B. Riley analyst T. Hayes now forecasts that the financial services provider will post earnings of $0.38 per share for the quarter, up from their prior forecast of $0.37. B. Riley currently has a “Buy” rating and a $17.00 target price on the stock. B. Riley also issued estimates for Hercules Capital’s Q4 2020 earnings at $0.38 EPS, FY2020 earnings at $1.48 EPS, Q1 2021 earnings at $0.38 EPS, Q2 2021 earnings at $0.39 EPS, Q3 2021 earnings at $0.39 EPS and FY2021 earnings at $1.55 EPS.
Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on HTGC. Wells Fargo & Co raised Hercules Capital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. JMP Securities set a $15.00 price objective on Hercules Capital and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. The company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $13.89.
Shares of HTGC stock opened at $15.99 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $14.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $13.86. The stock has a market cap of $1.64 billion, a PE ratio of 9.24 and a beta of 0.86. Hercules Capital has a 1 year low of $11.94 and a 1 year high of $16.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a current ratio of 1.49.
Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The financial services provider reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $70.58 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $69.47 million. Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 13.51% and a net margin of 64.81%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.32 EPS.
A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Sound Income Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 10.0% in the fourth quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,094,980 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $29,372,000 after acquiring an additional 191,103 shares during the last quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,367,625 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $19,174,000 after acquiring an additional 14,297 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 1,127,276 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $15,804,000 after acquiring an additional 47,093 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 898,808 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,601,000 after acquiring an additional 69,583 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 543,366 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,603,000 after acquiring an additional 59,675 shares during the last quarter. 32.59% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 9th. Investors of record on Monday, March 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This is a boost from Hercules Capital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.03. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.01%. Hercules Capital’s payout ratio is currently 90.78%.
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.