New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) Sets New 1-Year Low – Should You Sell?

New Mountain Finance Corporation (NASDAQ:NMFC)’s stock price hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Wednesday. The company traded as low as $6.70 and last traded at $6.7250, with a volume of 26903 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $6.84.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on NMFC shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of New Mountain Finance from $8.00 to $7.50 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of New Mountain Finance in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on New Mountain Finance from $9.00 to $8.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, New Mountain Finance has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $8.25.

New Mountain Finance Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 3.66, a current ratio of 3.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. The stock has a market cap of $637.07 million, a P/E ratio of -14.31 and a beta of 0.60. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $7.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $7.57.

New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.26. The company had revenue of $39.02 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $62.78 million. New Mountain Finance had a negative net margin of 16.78% and a positive return on equity of 10.94%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that New Mountain Finance Corporation will post 1.1 EPS for the current year.

New Mountain Finance Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 14.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 16th. New Mountain Finance’s dividend payout ratio is currently -212.77%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of New Mountain Finance by 19.4% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,145,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,380,000 after purchasing an additional 348,872 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP increased its position in New Mountain Finance by 29.2% in the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 1,125,657 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,071,000 after buying an additional 254,361 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in New Mountain Finance in the 4th quarter worth approximately $7,450,000. Tranquility Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of New Mountain Finance by 18.2% during the first quarter. Tranquility Partners LLC now owns 316,752 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,458,000 after buying an additional 48,679 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S lifted its holdings in shares of New Mountain Finance by 13.7% during the fourth quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 235,016 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,164,000 after buying an additional 28,387 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 32.08% of the company’s stock.

New Mountain Finance Company Profile

New Mountain Finance Corporation is a business development company (BDC) that provides financing to established middle-market companies. The company primarily invests in privately held businesses through senior secured loans, unitranche loans, subordinated debt and other debt securities, and may also make equity investments.

New Mountain Finance generally focuses on companies with strong market positions, recurring revenue and experienced management teams. Its investments span a range of industries and are intended to support acquisitions, recapitalizations, growth initiatives and other corporate purposes.