Runway Growth Finance Corp. Announces — Dividend of $0.03 (NASDAQ:RWAY)

Runway Growth Finance Corp. (NASDAQ:RWAY) announced a — dividend on Thursday, March 20th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.03 per share on Monday, April 14th. This represents a yield of 15.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st.

Runway Growth Finance has increased its dividend payment by an average of 85.7% annually over the last three years. Runway Growth Finance has a payout ratio of 91.0% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings tumble. Research analysts expect Runway Growth Finance to earn $1.59 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 83.0%.

Runway Growth Finance Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:RWAY opened at $10.75 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $10.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. Runway Growth Finance has a 1 year low of $9.87 and a 1 year high of $13.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $401.48 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.34 and a beta of 0.59.

Runway Growth Finance (NASDAQ:RWAY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $33.78 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.10 million. Runway Growth Finance had a net margin of 27.05% and a return on equity of 12.91%. As a group, research analysts predict that Runway Growth Finance will post 1.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on RWAY shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Runway Growth Finance from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Runway Growth Finance from $11.00 to $10.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $11.65.

About Runway Growth Finance

Runway Growth Finance Corp. is a business development company specializing investments in senior-secured loans to late stage and growth companies. It prefers to make investments in companies engaged in the technology, life sciences, healthcare and information services, business services and select consumer services and products sectors.