Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) Sets New 52-Week Low – Time to Sell?

Prospect Capital Co. (NASDAQ:PSEC) hit a new 52-week low on Friday . The company traded as low as $4.12 and last traded at $4.19, with a volume of 714226 shares. The stock had previously closed at $4.24.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Prospect Capital from $5.00 to $4.50 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Prospect Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th.

Prospect Capital Trading Down 1.2 %

The stock has a 50 day moving average of $4.78 and a 200 day moving average of $5.15. 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 firm has a market cap of $1.83 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.12 and a beta of 0.97.

Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) 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 firm had revenue of $196.31 million for the quarter. Prospect Capital had a positive return on equity of 12.19% and a negative net margin of 2.23%.

Prospect Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 19th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be paid 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 is Wednesday, January 29th. Prospect Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -207.69%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO M Grier Eliasek purchased 210,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $4.81 per share, with a total value of $1,010,100.00. Following the acquisition, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,131,130 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,250,735.30. The trade was a 10.93 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO John F. Barry bought 205,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $4.40 per share, for a total transaction of $905,960.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 72,612,839 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $319,496,491.60. The trade was a 0.28 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders acquired 3,273,173 shares of company stock valued at $15,121,420. Corporate insiders own 27.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prospect Capital

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in PSEC. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in Prospect Capital in the second quarter worth $27,000. MWA Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of Prospect Capital in the 3rd quarter worth about $53,000. Global Assets Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Prospect Capital during the 3rd quarter valued at about $64,000. Family Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Prospect Capital during the third quarter valued at about $74,000. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in Prospect Capital by 34.9% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 14,247 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $76,000 after buying an additional 3,686 shares in the last quarter. 9.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Prospect Capital

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.