Legal & General Group Plc Decreases Position in Portman Ridge Finance Co. (NASDAQ:PTMN)

Legal & General Group Plc reduced its position in shares of Portman Ridge Finance Co. (NASDAQ:PTMN) by 10.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 62,625 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,610 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.68% of Portman Ridge Finance worth $1,022,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Founders Financial Alliance LLC increased its position in shares of Portman Ridge Finance by 6.3% during the fourth quarter. Founders Financial Alliance LLC now owns 62,217 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,017,000 after purchasing an additional 3,671 shares in the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP grew its holdings in shares of Portman Ridge Finance by 50.3% during the fourth quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 65,351 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,068,000 after buying an additional 21,859 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Portman Ridge Finance in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,702,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 30.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of Portman Ridge Finance from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th.

Portman Ridge Finance Stock Performance

Shares of Portman Ridge Finance stock opened at $12.29 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 3.14 and a current ratio of 3.14. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $14.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.28. The company has a market cap of $113.04 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.22 and a beta of 0.64. Portman Ridge Finance Co. has a one year low of $11.60 and a one year high of $20.84.

Portman Ridge Finance (NASDAQ:PTMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.68 by ($0.08). Portman Ridge Finance had a net margin of 5.47% and a return on equity of 14.68%. The firm had revenue of $14.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.14 million. On average, research analysts predict that Portman Ridge Finance Co. will post 2.64 EPS for the current year.

Portman Ridge Finance Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 24th were issued a dividend of $0.47 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 24th. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 15.30%. Portman Ridge Finance’s dividend payout ratio is currently -293.75%.

Portman Ridge Finance Profile

Portman Ridge Finance Corporation is a business development company specializing in investments in unitranche loans (including last out), first lien loans, second lien loans, subordinated debt, equity co-investment, mezzanine, buyout in middle market companies. It also makes acquisitions in businesses complementary to the firm's business.