Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) Sees Large Volume Increase – What’s Next?

Prospect Capital Co. (NASDAQ:PSEC) shares saw an uptick in trading volume on Tuesday . 3,283,472 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 33% from the previous session’s volume of 2,477,621 shares.The stock last traded at $4.29 and had previously closed at $4.16.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on PSEC. StockNews.com upgraded Prospect Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Prospect Capital from $5.00 to $4.50 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 30th.

Prospect Capital Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $1.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.77 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $4.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $5.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65.

Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $196.31 million during the quarter. Prospect Capital had a negative net margin of 2.23% and a positive return on equity of 12.19%.

Prospect Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 19th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be paid a $0.045 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 29th. This represents a $0.54 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 12.39%. Prospect Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently -207.69%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Prospect Capital

In other Prospect Capital news, COO M Grier Eliasek purchased 210,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $4.81 per share, for a total transaction of $1,010,100.00. Following the purchase, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,131,130 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,250,735.30. This trade represents a 10.93 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO John F. Barry purchased 837,273 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $4.47 per share, with a total value of $3,742,610.31. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 73,450,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $328,322,000.64. The trade was a 1.15 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have acquired a total of 3,273,173 shares of company stock worth $15,121,420 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 27.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of PSEC. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Prospect Capital in the second quarter valued at about $27,000. MWA Asset Management purchased a new stake in Prospect Capital in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Global Assets Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Prospect Capital during the 3rd quarter valued at $64,000. Family Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Prospect Capital during the third quarter worth $74,000. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in Prospect Capital by 34.9% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 14,247 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 3,686 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 9.06% of the company’s stock.

About Prospect Capital

Prospect Capital Corporation is a business development company. It specializes in middle market, mature, mezzanine finance, later stage, emerging growth, leveraged buyouts, refinancing, acquisitions, recapitalizations, turnaround, growth capital, development, capital expenditures and subordinated debt tranches of collateralized loan obligations, cash flow term loans, market place lending and bridge transactions.