John Kline Sells 1,238 Shares of New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC) Stock

New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC) CEO John Kline sold 1,238 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.55, for a total value of $15,536.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 254,610 shares in the company, valued at $3,195,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

New Mountain Finance Stock Performance

Shares of New Mountain Finance stock opened at $12.72 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.18 and a beta of 1.13. New Mountain Finance Co. has a 52 week low of $11.38 and a 52 week high of $13.23. The company has a quick ratio of 2.92, a current ratio of 2.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $12.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.72.

New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 26th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $92.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.03 million. New Mountain Finance had a net margin of 36.13% and a return on equity of 11.93%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.35 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that New Mountain Finance Co. will post 1.53 EPS for the current year.

New Mountain Finance Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 11.32%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is an increase from New Mountain Finance’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. New Mountain Finance’s payout ratio is presently 102.40%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its position in New Mountain Finance by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 3,574,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,469,000 after buying an additional 91,379 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in New Mountain Finance by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 2,828,491 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,626,000 after acquiring an additional 53,195 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in New Mountain Finance by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,562,437 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,875,000 after acquiring an additional 156,652 shares during the period. Dimension Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of New Mountain Finance by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Dimension Capital Management LLC now owns 1,210,723 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,679,000 after acquiring an additional 18,871 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of New Mountain Finance by 1,157.0% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 426,352 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,423,000 after acquiring an additional 392,434 shares during the period. 32.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on New Mountain Finance from $12.00 to $12.50 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th.

New Mountain Finance Company Profile

New Mountain Finance Corporation (Nasdaq: NMFC), a business development company is a private equity / buyouts and loan fund specializes in directly investing and lending to middle market companies in defensive growth industries. The fund prefers investing in buyout and middle market companies. It also makes investments in debt securities at all levels of the capital structure including first and second lien debt, unsecured notes, and mezzanine securities.