PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ:PFLT) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” from Analysts

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ:PFLT) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $10.4167.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PFLT. Maxim Group set a $10.50 price target on PennantPark Floating Rate Capital in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital from $10.50 to $10.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 12th.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Stock Performance

PFLT stock opened at $8.13 on Friday. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital has a twelve month low of $7.97 and a twelve month high of $11.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 0.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The company has a market cap of $806.64 million, a P/E ratio of 5.81 and a beta of 0.77. The business’s fifty day moving average is $9.08 and its 200-day moving average is $9.25.

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a monthly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th were issued a dividend of $0.1025 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 15.1%. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital’s payout ratio is currently 361.76%.

Insider Activity

In other PennantPark Floating Rate Capital news, Director Jose A. Briones purchased 5,895 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $8.48 per share, for a total transaction of $49,989.60. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 342,313 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,902,814.24. The trade was a 1.75% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PennantPark Floating Rate Capital

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Sound Income Strategies LLC increased its stake in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 12.4% during the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 4,643,958 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $44,257,000 after purchasing an additional 512,528 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 7.4% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,533,205 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $22,520,000 after buying an additional 174,630 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 42.9% in the third quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,057,399 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $18,290,000 after buying an additional 617,657 shares during the period. UBS Group AG increased its position in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,367,442 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $12,676,000 after acquiring an additional 71,372 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Altshuler Shaham Ltd increased its position in shares of PennantPark Floating Rate Capital by 44.1% during the fourth quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 1,320,156 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $12,238,000 after acquiring an additional 404,117 shares in the last quarter. 19.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About PennantPark Floating Rate Capital

PennantPark Floating Rate Capital, Inc (NASDAQ: PFLT) is a closed-end management investment company organized as a business development company (BDC) under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The firm’s primary objective is to generate current income and, secondarily, capital appreciation for its shareholders through debt and equity investments in middle-market companies. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital focuses on floating-rate instruments to help mitigate interest-rate risk and align cash flows with its dividend strategy.

The company’s portfolio is concentrated in senior secured loans, second-lien debt, mezzanine securities and, from time to time, equity investments.