Sixth Street Specialty Lending, Inc. (NYSE:TSLX) Given Average Rating of "Buy" by Analysts

Sixth Street Specialty Lending, Inc. (NYSE:TSLX - Get Free Report) has been given an average recommendation of "Buy" by the six research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $22.00.

Several analysts have weighed in on TSLX shares. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $23.00 price objective on shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Sixth Street Specialty Lending from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Sixth Street Specialty Lending from $23.00 to $21.50 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised Sixth Street Specialty Lending from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $21.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sixth Street Specialty Lending

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV grew its stake in shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending by 1.7% in the second quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 36,903 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $788,000 after acquiring an additional 627 shares during the last quarter. Worth Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending by 7.9% in the second quarter. Worth Asset Management LLC now owns 14,156 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $302,000 after acquiring an additional 1,037 shares during the last quarter. IFG Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending by 6.3% in the second quarter. IFG Advisory LLC now owns 17,512 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $374,000 after acquiring an additional 1,039 shares during the last quarter. EMC Capital Management grew its stake in shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending by 23.1% in the first quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 6,747 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $145,000 after acquiring an additional 1,265 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barnett & Company Inc. grew its stake in shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending by 4.7% in the third quarter. Barnett & Company Inc. now owns 29,050 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $596,000 after acquiring an additional 1,300 shares during the last quarter. 70.25% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Sixth Street Specialty Lending Price Performance

NYSE:TSLX traded down $0.46 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $19.80. The stock had a trading volume of 701,700 shares, compared to its average volume of 350,282. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $20.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $21.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.39 and a beta of 1.06. Sixth Street Specialty Lending has a one year low of $19.50 and a one year high of $22.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90.

Sixth Street Specialty Lending (NYSE:TSLX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57. Sixth Street Specialty Lending had a return on equity of 13.76% and a net margin of 44.55%. The company had revenue of $119.22 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $119.85 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Sixth Street Specialty Lending will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Sixth Street Specialty Lending Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a -- dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be paid a $0.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. This represents a yield of 9.1%. Sixth Street Specialty Lending's payout ratio is 77.97%.

About Sixth Street Specialty Lending

Sixth Street Specialty Lending, Inc NYSE: TSLX is a business development company. The fund provides senior secured loans (first-lien, second-lien, and unitranche), unsecured loans, mezzanine debt, and investments in corporate bonds and equity securities and structured products, non-control structured equity, and common equity with a focus on co-investments for organic growth, acquisitions, market or product expansion, restructuring initiatives, recapitalizations, and refinancing.