Capital Southwest Co. (NASDAQ:CSWC) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Capital Southwest Co. (NASDAQ:CSWC - Get Free Report) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,440,000 shares, a growth of 27.7% from the March 15th total of 1,910,000 shares. Approximately 5.0% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 597,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.1 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CSWC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Capital Southwest from $23.50 to $20.50 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. StockNews.com raised shares of Capital Southwest from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, April 19th.

Institutional Trading of Capital Southwest

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Capital Southwest by 1.7% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 76,083 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,924,000 after acquiring an additional 1,263 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in Capital Southwest by 24.6% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 154,038 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $3,893,000 after buying an additional 30,423 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. bought a new stake in Capital Southwest during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $326,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Capital Southwest during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,250,000. Finally, Sanders Morris Harris LLC raised its holdings in Capital Southwest by 28.0% in the fourth quarter. Sanders Morris Harris LLC now owns 814,584 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $17,579,000 after purchasing an additional 178,420 shares in the last quarter. 23.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Capital Southwest Price Performance

NASDAQ:CSWC traded up $0.31 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $19.96. 45,247 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 425,082. The firm has a market cap of $1.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.12 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $21.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $22.55. Capital Southwest has a 52 week low of $17.46 and a 52 week high of $27.23.

Capital Southwest (NASDAQ:CSWC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The asset manager reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.01. Capital Southwest had a return on equity of 15.18% and a net margin of 33.49%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Capital Southwest will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Capital Southwest Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 11.62%. Capital Southwest's payout ratio is currently 164.54%.

Capital Southwest Company Profile

Capital Southwest Corporation is a business development company specializing in credit and private equity and venture capital investments in middle market companies, mezzanine, later stage, mature, late venture, emerging growth, buyouts, industry consolidation, recapitalizations and growth capital investments.