Runway Growth Finance Corp. (NASDAQ:RWAY) Short Interest Down 17.4% in April

Runway Growth Finance Corp. (NASDAQ:RWAY) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totaling 3,219,204 shares, a decrease of 17.4% from the March 31st total of 3,898,266 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 903,795 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.6 days. Approximately 9.0% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Runway Growth Finance

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new stake in Runway Growth Finance during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Kestra Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Runway Growth Finance in the 4th quarter valued at $42,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Runway Growth Finance during the 2nd quarter worth about $51,000. Osaic Holdings Inc. boosted its position in shares of Runway Growth Finance by 92.6% during the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 5,515 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 2,651 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its position in shares of Runway Growth Finance by 74,437.5% during the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 5,963 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 5,955 shares in the last quarter. 64.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on RWAY. Zacks Research lowered Runway Growth Finance from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. B. Riley Financial reduced their target price on Runway Growth Finance from $12.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Runway Growth Finance in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Runway Growth Finance from $10.00 to $7.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Runway Growth Finance from $9.50 to $7.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $9.00.

Runway Growth Finance Stock Up 1.8%

Shares of Runway Growth Finance stock opened at $6.85 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $247.49 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.45 and a beta of 0.64. Runway Growth Finance has a twelve month low of $6.36 and a twelve month high of $11.40. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $7.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $8.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93.

Runway Growth Finance (NASDAQ:RWAY) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 12th. The company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $30.04 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $31.60 million. Runway Growth Finance had a net margin of 24.79% and a return on equity of 11.52%. Equities research analysts forecast that Runway Growth Finance will post 1.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Runway Growth Finance Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th were given a $0.33 dividend. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 19.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 10th. Runway Growth Finance’s dividend payout ratio is currently 143.48%.

About Runway Growth Finance

Runway Growth Finance, Inc is a publicly traded business development company that provides customized debt and equity financing solutions to high‐growth, venture‐backed companies. The firm specializes in structuring senior secured loans, unitranche facilities, second‐lien financings, convertible notes and equity co‐investments designed to extend the cash runway for late‐stage companies. Runway’s flexible capital offerings are aimed at supporting technology, life sciences and other innovation‐driven sectors as they pursue growth initiatives and prepare for liquidity events.

Originally launched in 2017 under the name Saratoga Investment Corp., the company rebranded as Runway Growth Finance in 2020 following the acquisition of an established middle‐market credit manager.