D.A. Davidson & CO. Raises Stock Holdings in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC)

D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its position in shares of Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) by 1.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 289,183 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,333 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. owned approximately 0.18% of Hercules Capital worth $5,810,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Avior Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 177.2% during the 4th quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,802 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 1,152 shares in the last quarter. Archer Investment Corp raised its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 345.4% during the 4th quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 2,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 1,803 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 59,650.0% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,390 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 2,386 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 45.6% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 4,086 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 1,279 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Hercules Capital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $114,000. 19.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on HTGC. Compass Point upped their price objective on Hercules Capital from $18.25 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of Hercules Capital in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Hercules Capital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $19.50 to $21.50 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.40.

Hercules Capital Stock Performance

Shares of Hercules Capital stock opened at $22.01 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $20.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $19.63. The company has a market capitalization of $3.81 billion, a PE ratio of 13.67 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a 52 week low of $16.95 and a 52 week high of $22.04.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The financial services provider reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.49. The company had revenue of $121.78 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $124.09 million. Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 17.19% and a net margin of 53.28%. As a group, analysts expect that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Hercules Capital Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be given a $0.47 dividend. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.54%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 26th. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 99.38%.

About Hercules Capital

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.