New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) Upgraded at Zacks Research

Zacks Research upgraded shares of New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a report released on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of New Mountain Finance from $11.00 to $10.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Oppenheimer set a $11.00 price objective on shares of New Mountain Finance and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of New Mountain Finance in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. B. Riley restated a “neutral” rating and set a $10.00 price target (down from $11.00) on shares of New Mountain Finance in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, New Street Research set a $10.00 price objective on New Mountain Finance in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, New Mountain Finance has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $10.17.

New Mountain Finance Stock Up 0.7%

NMFC opened at $9.61 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $9.49 and a 200-day moving average of $10.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $991.37 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.78 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. New Mountain Finance has a 1-year low of $8.84 and a 1-year high of $12.05.

New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32. The business had revenue of $80.53 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $83.91 million. New Mountain Finance had a return on equity of 10.42% and a net margin of 20.84%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.34 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that New Mountain Finance will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

New Mountain Finance Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 17th will be given a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 13.3%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 17th. New Mountain Finance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 196.92%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Steven B. Klinsky acquired 106,691 shares of New Mountain Finance stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 16th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $9.78 per share, with a total value of $1,043,437.98. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 4,370,857 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,746,981.46. The trade was a 2.50% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Adam B. Weinstein bought 49,750 shares of New Mountain Finance stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $10.03 per share, for a total transaction of $498,992.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the executive vice president owned 652,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,544,474.70. This represents a 8.25% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 11.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of New Mountain Finance

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in shares of New Mountain Finance by 94.9% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 24,146 shares of the company’s stock worth $266,000 after purchasing an additional 11,754 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in New Mountain Finance by 5.3% during the first quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 184,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,030,000 after buying an additional 9,260 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp bought a new stake in New Mountain Finance during the first quarter worth $374,000. First National Trust Co raised its position in New Mountain Finance by 2.9% during the first quarter. First National Trust Co now owns 169,359 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,868,000 after acquiring an additional 4,780 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management lifted its stake in New Mountain Finance by 14.3% in the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,764,111 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,488,000 after acquiring an additional 346,508 shares during the last quarter. 32.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

New Mountain Finance Company 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.