Apollon Wealth Management LLC Makes New $314,000 Investment in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC)

Apollon Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 15,622 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $314,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Tectonic Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Hercules Capital by 17.0% in the third quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC now owns 433,032 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $8,505,000 after purchasing an additional 62,826 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in Hercules Capital by 511.2% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 53,068 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,042,000 after buying an additional 44,386 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Hercules Capital by 9.3% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 406,985 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $7,993,000 after buying an additional 34,718 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of Hercules Capital by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 387,225 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $7,667,000 after purchasing an additional 84,780 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Hercules Capital by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 401,133 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $7,878,000 after purchasing an additional 36,886 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.69% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Hercules Capital from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $19.50 to $21.50 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a "market outperform" rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of Hercules Capital in a report on Friday.

Hercules Capital Price Performance

NYSE HTGC traded up $0.33 on Tuesday, reaching $21.60. 565,928 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 891,216. The company has a market cap of $3.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.69 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $20.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $19.59. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a 12 month low of $16.95 and a 12 month high of $21.78.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The financial services provider reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.49. Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 17.88% and a net margin of 65.07%. The company had revenue of $121.78 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $124.09 million. As a group, research analysts predict that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 2.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be given a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.71%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 26th. Hercules Capital's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.21%.

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.