Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc trimmed its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC - Free Report) by 8.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,077,851 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 93,666 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.66% of Hercules Capital worth $21,654,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 11.7% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 93,680 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,882,000 after acquiring an additional 9,831 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 43.1% in the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 20,908 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $417,000 after purchasing an additional 6,295 shares during the period. Waterloo Capital L.P. grew its holdings in Hercules Capital by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. now owns 143,000 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,873,000 after purchasing an additional 8,771 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 670,674 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $13,474,000 after acquiring an additional 15,836 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ExodusPoint Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Hercules Capital during the fourth quarter worth about $540,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.69% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on HTGC shares. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Hercules Capital from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of Hercules Capital in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of Hercules Capital from $21.50 to $20.50 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Compass Point increased their price target on shares of Hercules Capital from $18.25 to $20.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Hercules Capital has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $20.25.

Hercules Capital Trading Up 1.7 %

NYSE HTGC traded up $0.30 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $17.53. The company had a trading volume of 787,321 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,054,783. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a 1-year low of $15.65 and a 1-year high of $22.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.89 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $19.15 and a 200 day moving average of $19.59. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC - Get Free Report) last announced 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 17.19% and a net margin of 53.28%. The company had revenue of $121.78 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $124.09 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 26th were issued a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 10.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 26th. Hercules Capital's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 99.38%.

Hercules Capital Company 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.