Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) Reaches New 12-Month Low - What's Next?

Prospect Capital Co. (NASDAQ:PSEC - Get Free Report)'s share price hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $4.12 and last traded at $4.19, with a volume of 714226 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $4.24.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PSEC has been the topic of several research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Prospect Capital from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Prospect Capital from $5.00 to $4.50 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 30th.

Prospect Capital Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $4.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $5.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.83 billion, a PE ratio of -16.12 and a beta of 0.97.

Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $196.31 million for the quarter. Prospect Capital had a negative net margin of 2.23% and a positive return on equity of 12.19%.

Prospect Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 19th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be given a dividend of $0.045 per share. This represents a $0.54 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 12.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 29th. Prospect Capital's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -207.69%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Prospect Capital news, CEO John F. Barry bought 837,273 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $4.47 per share, with a total value of $3,742,610.31. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 73,450,112 shares in the company, valued at $328,322,000.64. This represents a 1.15 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO M Grier Eliasek bought 210,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were bought at an average price of $4.81 per share, for a total transaction of $1,010,100.00. Following the purchase, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,131,130 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,250,735.30. This trade represents a 10.93 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought a total of 3,273,173 shares of company stock worth $15,121,420 in the last three months. Insiders own 27.10% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prospect Capital

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PSEC. XML Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Prospect Capital by 8.1% in the 3rd quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 2,044,448 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $10,938,000 after buying an additional 153,180 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in Prospect Capital by 23.3% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,938,863 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $47,376,000 after purchasing an additional 1,690,290 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its position in Prospect Capital by 387.3% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 175,953 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $973,000 after purchasing an additional 139,842 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Prospect Capital by 344.0% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 933,083 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $4,992,000 after purchasing an additional 722,925 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC increased its position in shares of Prospect Capital by 101.4% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 19,310 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $103,000 after purchasing an additional 9,721 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 9.06% of the company's stock.

Prospect Capital Company Profile

Prospect Capital Corporation is a business development company. It specializes in middle market, mature, mezzanine finance, later stage, emerging growth, leveraged buyouts, refinancing, acquisitions, recapitalizations, turnaround, growth capital, development, capital expenditures and subordinated debt tranches of collateralized loan obligations, cash flow term loans, market place lending and bridge transactions.