Saratoga Investment (NYSE:SAR) Earns Hold Rating from Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Saratoga Investment (NYSE:SAR – Get Rating) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning. The firm issued a hold rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Separately, B. Riley increased their price objective on shares of Saratoga Investment from $27.50 to $28.50 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, January 12th.

Saratoga Investment Price Performance

Shares of SAR stock opened at $23.94 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.08. The company has a market capitalization of $284.65 million, a P/E ratio of 20.46 and a beta of 1.38. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $26.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $25.09. Saratoga Investment has a one year low of $20.16 and a one year high of $28.44.

Saratoga Investment (NYSE:SAR – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 10th. The financial services provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.10. Saratoga Investment had a net margin of 16.18% and a return on equity of 8.40%. The firm had revenue of $26.26 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $23.87 million. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Saratoga Investment will post 2.83 EPS for the current year.

Saratoga Investment Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.69 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 15th. This is an increase from Saratoga Investment’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.53%. Saratoga Investment’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 235.90%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Saratoga Investment

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Saratoga Investment by 4.7% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 150,799 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,132,000 after acquiring an additional 6,805 shares during the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Saratoga Investment by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 113,479 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,893,000 after acquiring an additional 1,342 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in Saratoga Investment by 0.9% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 85,557 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,777,000 after acquiring an additional 749 shares during the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN lifted its position in Saratoga Investment by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 83,549 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,130,000 after acquiring an additional 1,360 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in Saratoga Investment by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 79,617 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,029,000 after acquiring an additional 3,968 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.45% of the company’s stock.

About Saratoga Investment

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Saratoga Investment Corp. (NYSE: SAR) is a publicly traded business development company (BDC) that provides customized financing solutions for middle market companies located in the United States. Saratoga’s senior investment professionals have over 200 years of combined experience investing in more than $4 billion in middle market businesses.