Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) Given New $19.00 Price Target at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) had its price objective hoisted by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $18.00 to $19.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a market perform rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

HTGC has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Compass Point cut shares of Hercules Capital from a buy rating to a neutral rating and boosted their target price for the company from $17.00 to $17.50 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Hercules Capital from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, JMP Securities boosted their target price on shares of Hercules Capital from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a market outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Hercules Capital has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $18.56.

Hercules Capital Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE:HTGC traded up $0.13 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $19.43. The company had a trading volume of 1,369,561 shares, compared to its average volume of 744,423. The company has a market capitalization of $3.15 billion, a PE ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 1.32. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $18.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.16. Hercules Capital has a 52 week low of $12.40 and a 52 week high of $19.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 2.75 and a quick ratio of 2.75.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The financial services provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.02. Hercules Capital had a net margin of 69.98% and a return on equity of 18.91%. The business had revenue of $121.55 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $121.86 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.47 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Hercules Capital will post 2.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 21st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 14th will be given a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.88%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 13th. Hercules Capital’s payout ratio is currently 72.73%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hercules Capital

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Graypoint LLC increased its position in shares of Hercules Capital by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 133,374 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,461,000 after purchasing an additional 3,416 shares during the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Hercules Capital by 35.3% during the 1st quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC now owns 17,163 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $317,000 after purchasing an additional 4,482 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its position in shares of Hercules Capital by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 301,373 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,560,000 after purchasing an additional 18,777 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its holdings in Hercules Capital by 7.9% in the 1st quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 100,619 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,856,000 after acquiring an additional 7,355 shares in the last quarter. Finally, North Star Investment Management Corp. increased its holdings in Hercules Capital by 17.9% in the 1st quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp. now owns 47,627 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $879,000 after acquiring an additional 7,239 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.69% 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.