JPMorgan Chase & Co. Lowers Stock Holdings in Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) by 27.5% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 292,978 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 111,073 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Hercules Capital were worth $5,754,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HTGC. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Hercules Capital by 25.6% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 186,835 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,821,000 after buying an additional 38,131 shares during the period. AE Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Hercules Capital by 18.9% during the second quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 30,393 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $622,000 after acquiring an additional 4,825 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its stake in Hercules Capital by 13.9% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 23,771 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $486,000 after acquiring an additional 2,902 shares during the last quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hercules Capital by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC now owns 142,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,918,000 after purchasing an additional 2,589 shares during the period. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Hercules Capital in the 2nd quarter valued at about $717,000. 19.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on HTGC. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of Hercules Capital in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Hercules Capital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $19.50 to $21.50 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th.

Hercules Capital Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE HTGC opened at $20.63 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.21 and a beta of 1.35. Hercules Capital, Inc. has a 1 year low of $16.72 and a 1 year high of $21.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 1.61. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $19.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.64.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.51. The company had revenue of $125.25 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $125.80 million. Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 17.88% and a net margin of 65.07%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.52 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Hercules Capital, Inc. will post 2.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hercules Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 13th were issued a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 13th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.31%. Hercules Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 79.21%.

Hercules Capital Profile

Hercules Capital, Inc is a business development company. The firm specializing in providing venture debt, debt, senior secured loans, and growth capital to privately held venture capital-backed companies at all stages of development from startups to expansion stage including select publicly listed companies and select special opportunity lower middle market companies that require additional capital to fund acquisitions, recapitalizations and refinancing and established-stage companies.