Capital Southwest Co. (NASDAQ:CSWC) Receives $21.88 Average Price Target from Analysts

Capital Southwest Co. (NASDAQ:CSWC – Get Rating) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the six research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $21.88.

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CSWC shares. TheStreet downgraded shares of Capital Southwest from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Monday, January 30th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of Capital Southwest in a research report on Monday, March 13th. B. Riley upped their target price on shares of Capital Southwest from $20.00 to $21.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 1st. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Capital Southwest in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company.

Capital Southwest Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSWC opened at $17.00 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 0.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. Capital Southwest has a fifty-two week low of $16.28 and a fifty-two week high of $24.40. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $18.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.22. The company has a market cap of $587.52 million, a PE ratio of 12.41 and a beta of 1.20.

Capital Southwest (NASDAQ:CSWC – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 31st. The asset manager reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.05. Capital Southwest had a net margin of 33.53% and a return on equity of 12.21%. The business had revenue of $32.77 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.12 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.51 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Capital Southwest will post 2.02 EPS for the current year.

Capital Southwest Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 15th will be paid a $0.58 dividend. This is a positive change from Capital Southwest’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 13.65%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 14th. Capital Southwest’s dividend payout ratio is currently 154.74%.

Institutional Trading of Capital Southwest

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CSWC. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Capital Southwest by 420.5% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 755,686 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,920,000 after acquiring an additional 610,502 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates lifted its stake in shares of Capital Southwest by 374.7% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 170,661 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,918,000 after acquiring an additional 134,706 shares during the period. Two Sigma Investments LP lifted its stake in shares of Capital Southwest by 75.7% in the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 298,617 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,106,000 after acquiring an additional 128,670 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Capital Southwest in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,744,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Capital Southwest by 20.7% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 439,227 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,510,000 after acquiring an additional 75,459 shares during the period. 26.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Capital Southwest

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Capital Southwest is a publicly–owned business development company with total assets of $496 million as of June 30, 2010. We provide patient capital to exceptional businesses with significant growth potential. As a public company, we have the flexibility to hold investments indefinitely, which has provided the management teams of our holdings a stable ownership platform since we were founded in 1961.