Bain Capital Specialty Finance, Inc. (NYSE:BCSF) Short Interest Update

Bain Capital Specialty Finance, Inc. (NYSE:BCSF) saw a significant decrease in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 270,700 shares, a decrease of 25.7% from the February 28th total of 364,500 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 273,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.0 days. Approximately 0.4% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Bain Capital Specialty Finance Price Performance

Bain Capital Specialty Finance stock opened at $16.70 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $17.71 and its 200 day moving average is $17.24. Bain Capital Specialty Finance has a one year low of $15.29 and a one year high of $19.21. The firm has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.39 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 1.41.

Bain Capital Specialty Finance (NYSE:BCSF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.03. Bain Capital Specialty Finance had a net margin of 43.62% and a return on equity of 11.90%. The firm had revenue of $73.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $67.50 million. As a group, research analysts expect that Bain Capital Specialty Finance will post 2.06 EPS for the current year.

Bain Capital Specialty Finance Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 16th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.72%. Bain Capital Specialty Finance’s payout ratio is currently 90.81%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Clare Stack Richer acquired 1,530 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The stock was bought at an average price of $16.43 per share, with a total value of $25,137.90. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 20,835 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $342,319.05. This represents a 7.93 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.59% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BCSF. United Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in Bain Capital Specialty Finance by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. United Advisor Group LLC now owns 79,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,393,000 after purchasing an additional 2,546 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Bain Capital Specialty Finance during the 4th quarter worth approximately $354,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Bain Capital Specialty Finance by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 9,361 shares of the company’s stock valued at $164,000 after acquiring an additional 1,189 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bain Capital Specialty Finance during the 4th quarter valued at $25,006,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers bought a new position in Bain Capital Specialty Finance during the fourth quarter worth $5,560,000.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on BCSF. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Bain Capital Specialty Finance from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Bain Capital Specialty Finance from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th.

About Bain Capital Specialty Finance

Bain Capital Specialty Finance, Inc is business development company specializing in direct loans to middle-market companies. The fund seeks to invest in senior investments with a first or second lien on collateral, senior first lien, stretch senior, senior second lien, unitranche, mezzanine debt, junior securities, other junior investments, and secondary purchases of assets or portfolios that primarily consist of middle-market corporate debt.