Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Has $246,000 Stock Position in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC)

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. reduced its stake in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) by 25.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,817 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 4,443 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in Hercules Capital were worth $246,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in HTGC. Sound Income Strategies LLC raised its stake in Hercules Capital by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,874,455 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $55,218,000 after buying an additional 59,241 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its stake in Hercules Capital by 205.7% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 1,406,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,265,000 after buying an additional 946,700 shares during the period. Advisors Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Hercules Capital by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 1,018,210 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $20,456,000 after buying an additional 62,610 shares during the period. Two Sigma Investments LP raised its stake in Hercules Capital by 106.7% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 945,849 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $19,002,000 after buying an additional 488,172 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in Hercules Capital by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 788,353 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $15,839,000 after buying an additional 23,783 shares during the period. 19.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Hercules Capital Stock Up 0.9%

HTGC stock opened at $19.20 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 2.38 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The business has a 50-day moving average of $18.02 and a 200-day moving average of $18.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.43 and a beta of 0.93. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.65 and a fifty-two week high of $22.04.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The financial services provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $102.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $125.43 million. Hercules Capital had a net margin of 45.23% and a return on equity of 16.84%. Hercules Capital’s revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.50 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th were given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 120.30%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Hercules Capital from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Hercules Capital from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Hercules Capital from $18.50 to $19.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on Hercules Capital from $21.50 to $20.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $20.08.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Nikos Theodosopoulos bought 5,999 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $17.49 per share, with a total value of $104,922.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 11,960 shares in the company, valued at $209,180.40. The trade was a 100.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.90% of the company’s stock.

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.