Short Interest in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) Declines By 5.3%

Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,190,000 shares, a decrease of 5.3% from the December 15th total of 5,480,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,010,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.1 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HTGC. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Hercules Capital by 1,861.8% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 407,119 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $79,960,000 after acquiring an additional 386,367 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 10.3% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,115,419 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $61,873,000 after purchasing an additional 290,579 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 28.0% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 387,225 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,667,000 after purchasing an additional 84,780 shares in the last quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 17.0% during the third quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC now owns 433,032 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,505,000 after purchasing an additional 62,826 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 1.8% during the third quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,737,345 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $53,761,000 after purchasing an additional 47,672 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on HTGC. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of Hercules Capital in a report on Monday, January 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Hercules Capital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $19.50 to $21.50 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th.

Hercules Capital Price Performance

HTGC stock opened at $20.75 on Friday. Hercules Capital has a 52-week low of $16.72 and a 52-week high of $21.78. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.64. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.27 and a beta of 1.35.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.51. The business had revenue of $125.25 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $125.80 million. Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 17.88% and a net margin of 65.07%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.52 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Hercules Capital will post 2.01 EPS for the current year.

Hercules Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 13th were issued a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.26%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 13th. Hercules Capital’s payout ratio is currently 79.21%.

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.