New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC) Shares Sold by Raymond James & Associates

Raymond James & Associates lowered its stake in shares of New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC) by 12.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 31,013 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,533 shares during the quarter. Raymond James & Associates’ holdings in New Mountain Finance were worth $394,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in NMFC. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in New Mountain Finance during the third quarter worth $4,457,000. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in New Mountain Finance by 6.5% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,405,785 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,205,000 after purchasing an additional 85,873 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new position in New Mountain Finance during the third quarter worth $1,018,000. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in New Mountain Finance by 1.9% during the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 2,828,491 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,626,000 after purchasing an additional 53,195 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trexquant Investment LP lifted its stake in New Mountain Finance by 70.8% during the third quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 74,511 shares of the company’s stock worth $965,000 after purchasing an additional 30,881 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 32.08% of the company’s stock.

New Mountain Finance Stock Performance

NMFC stock opened at $12.72 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 2.92 and a current ratio of 2.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.18 and a beta of 1.13. New Mountain Finance Co. has a 1 year low of $11.38 and a 1 year high of $13.23. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $12.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $12.72.

New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 26th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $92.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.03 million. New Mountain Finance had a return on equity of 11.93% and a net margin of 36.13%. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.35 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that New Mountain Finance Co. will post 1.53 EPS for the current year.

New Mountain Finance Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 11.32%. This is a boost from New Mountain Finance’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. New Mountain Finance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 102.40%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on New Mountain Finance from $12.00 to $12.50 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th.

New Mountain Finance Profile

New Mountain Finance Corporation (Nasdaq: NMFC), a business development company is a private equity / buyouts and loan fund specializes in directly investing and lending to middle market companies in defensive growth industries. The fund prefers investing in buyout and middle market companies. It also makes investments in debt securities at all levels of the capital structure including first and second lien debt, unsecured notes, and mezzanine securities.