Prospect Capital Co. (NASDAQ:PSEC) Announces $0.06 Monthly Dividend

Prospect Capital Co. (NASDAQ:PSEC – Get Rating) announced a monthly dividend on Wednesday, November 9th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, January 27th will be paid a dividend of 0.06 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, February 16th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 26th.

Prospect Capital has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 9.1% annually over the last three years. Prospect Capital has a payout ratio of 77.4% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Equities research analysts expect Prospect Capital to earn $1.04 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 69.2%.

Prospect Capital Stock Performance

Shares of PSEC stock opened at $7.58 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.84 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.57. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.32. Prospect Capital has a 52 week low of $6.09 and a 52 week high of $8.74.

Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 9th. The financial services provider reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $202.67 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $195.60 million. Prospect Capital had a net margin of 36.40% and a return on equity of 9.50%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Prospect Capital will post 1.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Prospect Capital

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PSEC. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Prospect Capital by 69.9% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 38,735 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $240,000 after buying an additional 15,940 shares in the last quarter. Toroso Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Prospect Capital in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $99,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Prospect Capital in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $76,000. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its position in shares of Prospect Capital by 28.6% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 13,503 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $84,000 after buying an additional 3,002 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its position in shares of Prospect Capital by 17.7% in the 3rd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 20,206 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $125,000 after buying an additional 3,043 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 7.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on PSEC. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Prospect Capital in a research note on Wednesday, October 12th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Prospect Capital from $5.75 to $6.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 11th.

About Prospect Capital

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Prospect Capital Corporation is a business development company. It specializes in middle market, mature, mezzanine finance, later stage, emerging growth, leveraged buyouts, refinancing, acquisitions, recapitalizations, turnaround, growth capital, development, capital expenditures and subordinated debt tranches of collateralized loan obligations, cash flow term loans, market place lending and bridge transactions.