Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) Sees Strong Trading Volume – Here’s What Happened

Prospect Capital Co. (NASDAQ:PSEC) shares saw unusually-strong trading volume on Tuesday . Approximately 3,283,472 shares changed hands 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

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

Prospect Capital Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.90 billion, a PE 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 debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.48.

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

Prospect Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.045 per share. This represents a $0.54 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 12.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 29th. Prospect Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -207.69%.

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in Prospect Capital in the second quarter worth $27,000. Global Assets Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Prospect Capital in the 3rd quarter worth $64,000. Family Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Prospect Capital in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $74,000. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its stake in Prospect Capital by 34.9% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 14,247 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $76,000 after buying an additional 3,686 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AE Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Prospect Capital in the second quarter worth about $80,000. 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.