Sunbelt Securities Inc. Sells 3,633 Shares of Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC)

Sunbelt Securities Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) by 20.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,517 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,633 shares during the quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc.’s holdings in Hercules Capital were worth $285,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in HTGC. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in Hercules Capital by 10.3% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,115,419 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $61,873,000 after acquiring an additional 290,579 shares in the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,737,345 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $53,761,000 after purchasing an additional 47,672 shares in the last quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Hercules Capital by 17.0% in the 3rd quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC now owns 433,032 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,505,000 after purchasing an additional 62,826 shares during the period. Muzinich & Co. Inc. increased its stake in Hercules Capital by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter. Muzinich & Co. Inc. now owns 408,362 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,020,000 after purchasing an additional 36,886 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Hercules Capital by 1,861.8% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 407,119 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $79,960,000 after buying an additional 386,367 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Scott Bluestein sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.59, for a total value of $1,959,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,161,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,338,045.13. This represents a 4.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

HTGC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Hercules Capital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $19.50 to $21.50 in a report on Thursday. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of Hercules Capital in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.90.

Hercules Capital Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HTGC opened at $19.41 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $19.49 and a 200-day moving average of $19.65. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.68 and a fifty-two week high of $21.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 1.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.61 and a beta of 1.36.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51. Hercules Capital had a net margin of 65.07% and a return on equity of 17.88%. The firm had revenue of $125.25 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $125.80 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 2.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th were given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 13th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.89%. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 79.21%.

Hercules Capital Company Profile

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.