Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) Issues Earnings Results, Hits Expectations

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The financial services provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49, Zacks reports. Hercules Capital had a net margin of 65.07% and a return on equity of 17.88%.

Hercules Capital Stock Performance

HTGC traded up $0.21 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $21.26. 1,933,511 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 755,522. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $20.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $19.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.53 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. Hercules Capital has a 1-year low of $16.95 and a 1-year high of $21.78.

Hercules Capital Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be given a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 26th. Hercules Capital’s payout ratio is presently 79.21%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HTGC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of Hercules Capital in a research report on Friday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Hercules Capital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $19.50 to $21.50 in a report on Thursday, December 12th.

Hercules Capital Company Profile

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.