Franklin Resources Inc. Purchases New Shares in New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC)

Franklin Resources Inc. acquired a new stake in New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 223,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,608,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NMFC. Cerity Partners LLC grew its holdings in New Mountain Finance by 2.7% during the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 3,823,925 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,811,000 after purchasing an additional 100,315 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in shares of New Mountain Finance by 8.1% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,249,321 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,980,000 after purchasing an additional 168,719 shares during the period. Condor Capital Management grew its position in shares of New Mountain Finance by 28.2% in the 2nd quarter. Condor Capital Management now owns 348,406 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,264,000 after purchasing an additional 76,739 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in New Mountain Finance by 54.2% during the 3rd quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 193,449 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,318,000 after purchasing an additional 67,990 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC raised its holdings in New Mountain Finance by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 3,376,702 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,438,000 after buying an additional 237,594 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 32.08% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of New Mountain Finance from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 29th.

New Mountain Finance Price Performance

NMFC stock opened at $11.23 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $11.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.94. New Mountain Finance Co. has a 1 year low of $10.61 and a 1 year high of $13.10. The stock has a market cap of $1.21 billion, a PE ratio of 10.70 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a current ratio of 2.23, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46.

New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $95.33 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.10 million. New Mountain Finance had a return on equity of 11.25% and a net margin of 30.28%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.40 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that New Mountain Finance Co. will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

New Mountain Finance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.33 per share. This is a boost from New Mountain Finance’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 11.75%. New Mountain Finance’s dividend payout ratio is presently 121.90%.

Insider Activity at New Mountain Finance

In other New Mountain Finance news, Director Steven B. Klinsky acquired 6,200 shares of New Mountain Finance stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $11.75 per share, for a total transaction of $72,850.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 4,122,655 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,441,196.25. This represents a 0.15 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO John Kline bought 41,550 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $10.92 per share, for a total transaction of $453,726.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 351,783 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,841,470.36. The trade was a 13.39 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders acquired 324,530 shares of company stock valued at $3,603,675. Corporate insiders own 10.34% of the company’s stock.

New Mountain Finance Company Profile

New Mountain Finance Corporation (Nasdaq: NMFC), a business development company is a private equity / buyouts and loan fund specializes in directly investing and lending to middle market companies in defensive growth industries. The fund prefers investing in buyout and middle market companies. It also makes investments in debt securities at all levels of the capital structure including first and second lien debt, unsecured notes, and mezzanine securities.