Virtus Investment Advisers LLC Grows Position in Hercules Capital, Inc. $HTGC

Virtus Investment Advisers LLC grew its stake in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) by 9.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 47,438 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Virtus Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Hercules Capital were worth $867,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. CWM LLC increased its position in shares of Hercules Capital by 79.6% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,381 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 612 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in Hercules Capital by 173.4% during the 2nd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,386 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 879 shares during the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Hercules Capital during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Hercules Capital in the first quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Alpine Bank Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Hercules Capital in the second quarter worth about $33,000. 19.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Hercules Capital Stock Performance

HTGC opened at $18.10 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.68. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $17.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.40. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.65 and a 1 year high of $22.04. The stock has a market cap of $3.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.98 and a beta of 0.95.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.01. Hercules Capital had a net margin of 51.46% and a return on equity of 16.54%. The company had revenue of $138.09 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $136.95 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.51 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Hercules Capital Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 19th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.8%. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 93.02%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HTGC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wall Street Zen lowered Hercules Capital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Hercules Capital from $19.00 to $18.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. JMP Securities upped their price objective on shares of Hercules Capital from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Hercules Capital in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Citigroup restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Hercules Capital in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.42.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Hercules Capital news, Director Gayle A. Crowell purchased 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were bought at an average price of $17.77 per share, for a total transaction of $106,620.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 78,727 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,398,978.79. This trade represents a 8.25% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Hercules Capital 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.