Saratoga Investment Corp. (NYSE:SAR) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Saratoga Investment Corp. (NYSE:SAR) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the five brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $25.69.

A number of brokerages have commented on SAR. StockNews.com raised Saratoga Investment from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Oppenheimer cut Saratoga Investment from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $24.00 to $23.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Barclays PLC purchased a new position in shares of Saratoga Investment during the 3rd quarter valued at $37,000. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Saratoga Investment by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 9,664 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $250,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Saratoga Investment by 7.9% during the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 11,393 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $264,000 after buying an additional 832 shares during the last quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Saratoga Investment during the 4th quarter valued at $350,000. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Saratoga Investment during the 4th quarter valued at $431,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 19.09% of the company’s stock.

Saratoga Investment Trading Up 1.6 %

NYSE SAR opened at $22.87 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $23.58. Saratoga Investment has a one year low of $22.35 and a one year high of $27.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $313.32 million, a P/E ratio of 32.21 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 0.07 and a quick ratio of 0.07.

Saratoga Investment (NYSE:SAR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by ($0.02). Saratoga Investment had a net margin of 6.22% and a return on equity of 14.53%. The firm had revenue of $37.23 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.59 million. Research analysts expect that Saratoga Investment will post 3.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Saratoga Investment Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 13th were given a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 13th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 12.94%. This is a boost from Saratoga Investment’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.73. Saratoga Investment’s payout ratio is currently 416.91%.

Saratoga Investment Company Profile

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.