Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) Short Interest Update

Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC – Get Rating) saw a large growth in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 6,060,000 shares, a growth of 5.8% from the February 13th total of 5,730,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 892,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.8 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. WFA of San Diego LLC acquired a new position in shares of Hercules Capital during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. BDO Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 76.4% during the second quarter. BDO Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,217 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 960 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Hercules Capital during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 2,200.0% during the third quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 2,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 2,200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Delta Asset Management LLC TN acquired a new position in shares of Hercules Capital during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 23.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HTGC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $18.00 price target on shares of Hercules Capital in a report on Monday, March 13th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Hercules Capital from $15.00 to $14.50 in a research report on Friday, December 16th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Hercules Capital from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded Hercules Capital from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $14.50 to $10.50 in a research report on Monday, March 13th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on Hercules Capital in a research report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $14.93.

Hercules Capital Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HTGC opened at $11.90 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.66 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a quick ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. Hercules Capital has a 52 week low of $10.94 and a 52 week high of $19.09. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $13.81.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.05. Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 13.87% and a net margin of 31.73%. The firm had revenue of $100.19 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $91.34 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.35 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Hercules Capital will post 1.85 EPS for the current year.

Hercules Capital Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 13.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 1st. This is a boost from Hercules Capital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Hercules Capital’s payout ratio is currently 205.27%.

Hercules Capital Company Profile

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Hercules is the largest non-bank lender to venture capital-backed companies at all stages of development in a broadly diversified variety of technology, life sciences, and sustainable and renewable technology industries. With over a decade of experience in venture debt, Hercules is uniquely positioned to quickly create innovative financing solutions that perfectly fit within a company’s existing capital structure and map to its business objectives.