Saratoga Investment (SAR) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

Saratoga Investment Corp. is a business development company specializing in leveraged and management buyouts, acquisition financings, growth financings, recapitalization, debt refinancing, and transitional financing transactions at the lower end of middle market companies. It structures its investments as debt and equity by investing through first and second lien loans, mezzanine debt, co-investments, select high yield bonds, senior secured bonds, unsecured bonds, and preferred and common equity. The firm prefers to invest in aerospace, automotive aftermarket and services, business products and services, consumer products and services, education, environmental services, industrial services, financial services, food and beverage, healthcare products and services, logistics, distribution, manufacturing, restaurants services, food services, software services, technology services, specialty chemical, media and telecommunications. It seeks to invest in the United States. The firm primarily invests $5 million to $50 million in companies having EBITDA of $2 million or greater and revenues of $8 million to $250 million. The firm prefer to take a majority stake. It invests through direct lending as well as participation in loan syndicates. The firm was formerly known as GSC Investment Corp. Saratoga Investment Corp. was formed on 2007 and is based in New York, New York with an additional office in Florham Park, New Jersey.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $23.98 to $24.32
• 50-Day Range: $23.23 to $26.07
• 52-Week Range: $21.56 to $26.49
• Volume: 31,082 shs
• Average Volume: 79,923 shs
• Market Capitalization: $333.43 million
• P/E Ratio: 15.79
• Dividend Yield: 12.25%
• Price Target: $25.42
• Consensus Rating: Hold

Saratoga Investment Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Saratoga Investment scored higher than 36% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 786th out of 959 stocks in the finance sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 1.1 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Hold

Consensus Rating

Saratoga Investment has received a consensus rating of Hold. The company's average rating score is 2.25, and is based on 1 buy rating, 3 hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Saratoga Investment has only been the subject of 4 research reports in the past 90 days.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 1.9 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: -29.26%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Saratoga Investment are expected to decrease by -29.26% in the coming year, from $3.93 to $2.78 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Saratoga Investment is 15.81, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 135.61.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Saratoga Investment is 15.81, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Finance sector average P/E ratio of about 49.01.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Saratoga Investment has a P/B Ratio of 0.89. P/B Ratios below 1 indicate that a company could be undervalued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 3.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

1.29% of the outstanding shares of Saratoga Investment have been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Saratoga Investment has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Saratoga Investment has recently increased by 16.48%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

Dividend

• Score: 1.7 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Weak

Dividend Leadership

Saratoga Investment is a leading dividend payer. It pays a dividend yield of 12.32%, putting its dividend yield in the top 25% of dividend-paying stocks.

Dividend Growth

Saratoga Investment does not have a long track record of dividend growth.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of Saratoga Investment is 193.46%. Payout ratios above 75% are not desirable because they may not be sustainable.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on EPS estimates, Saratoga Investment will have a dividend payout ratio of 106.47% in the coming year. This indicates that Saratoga Investment may not be able to sustain their current dividend.

Sustainability and ESG

• Score: N/A
• Environmental Score: N/A

Percentage of Shares Shorted

1.29% of the outstanding shares of Saratoga Investment have been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Saratoga Investment has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Saratoga Investment has recently increased by 16.48%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

News and Social Media

• Score: 3.1 / 5
• News Sentiment: 0.64

News Sentiment

Saratoga Investment has a news sentiment score of 0.64. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a lower news sentiment than the 0.74 average news sentiment score of Finance companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 6 news articles for Saratoga Investment this week, compared to 4 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

15 people have searched for SAR on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 275% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

3 people have added Saratoga Investment to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 200% compared to the previous 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 0.8 / 5
• Insider Trading: N/A

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Saratoga Investment insiders have not sold or bought any company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

12.00% of the stock of Saratoga Investment is held by insiders. A high percentage of insider ownership can be a sign of company health.

Percentage Held by Institutions

Only 19.09% of the stock of Saratoga Investment is held by institutions.

SAR Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

How have SAR shares performed this year?

Saratoga Investment's stock was trading at $25.86 on January 1st, 2024. Since then, SAR shares have decreased by 6.5% and is now trading at $24.19.
View the best growth stocks for 2024 here.

How were Saratoga Investment's earnings last quarter?

Saratoga Investment Corp. (NYSE:SAR) issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October, 8th. The financial services provider reported $1.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.39. The financial services provider had revenue of $43 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $36.84 million. Saratoga Investment had a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 15.88% and a net margin of 13.64%.

Who are Saratoga Investment's major shareholders?

Top institutional investors of Saratoga Investment include Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. (1.01%), Advisors Asset Management Inc. (0.81%), International Assets Investment Management LLC (0.82%) and Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC (0.45%). Insiders that own company stock include Christian L Oberbeck and Steven M Looney.
View institutional ownership trends.

How do I buy shares of Saratoga Investment?

Shares of SAR stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.
Compare Top Brokerages Here.

What other stocks do shareholders of Saratoga Investment own?

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that Saratoga Investment investors own include NVIDIA (NVDA), Enterprise Products Partners (EPD), Broadcom (AVGO), Meta Platforms (META), Energy Transfer (ET), Rithm Capital (RITM) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Company Calendar

• Ex-Dividend for 9/26 Dividend: 9/11/2024
• Dividend Payable: 9/26/2024
• Last Earnings: 10/08/2024
• Ex-Dividend for 12/19 Dividend: 12/04/2024
• Today: 12/18/2024
• Dividend Payable: 12/19/2024
• Fiscal Year End: 2/28/2025

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NYSE
• Sector: Finance
• Industry: Investment advice
• Sub-Industry: Financial Services
• Current Symbol: NYSE:SAR
• Previous Symbol: NYSE:SHS
• CUSIP: N/A
• CIK: 1377936
• Web: www.saratogainvestmentcorp.com
• Phone: (212) 906-7800
• Fax: 212-884-6184
• Employees: 3,211
• Year Founded: N/A

Price Target and Rating

• Average Stock Price Target: $25.42
• High Stock Price Target: $26.25
• Low Stock Price Target: $25.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +5.1%
• Consensus Rating: Hold
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.25
• Research Coverage: 4 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Most Recent Fiscal Year): $1.53
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 15.81
• Forward P/E Ratio: 6.16
• P/E Growth: N/A
• Net Income: $8.93 million
• Net Margins: 13.64%
• Pretax Margin: 38.31%
• Return on Equity: 15.88%
• Return on Assets: 4.90%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 0.14
• Current Ratio: 0.22
• Quick Ratio: 0.22

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $34.01 million
• Price / Sales: 9.82
• Cash Flow: $4.21 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 5.74
• Book Value: $27.12 per share
• Price / Book: 0.89

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 13,801,000
• Free Float: 12,145,000
• Market Cap: $333.85 million
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 1.33