Sixth Street Specialty Lending, Inc. (NYSE:TSLX) Short Interest Up 27.6% in March

Sixth Street Specialty Lending, Inc. (NYSE:TSLX) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,710,000 shares, a growth of 27.6% from the February 28th total of 1,340,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 387,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.4 days. Approximately 1.9% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on TSLX. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH cut shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Sixth Street Specialty Lending from $21.50 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Sixth Street Specialty Lending from $22.50 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Sixth Street Specialty Lending from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.17.

Sixth Street Specialty Lending Price Performance

Sixth Street Specialty Lending stock opened at $22.39 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.41. The stock has a market cap of $2.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.03 and a beta of 1.08. Sixth Street Specialty Lending has a 12-month low of $19.50 and a 12-month high of $23.67.

Sixth Street Specialty Lending (NYSE:TSLX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The financial services provider reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.04. Sixth Street Specialty Lending had a return on equity of 13.47% and a net margin of 38.67%. The company had revenue of $123.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $120.07 million. Equities analysts expect that Sixth Street Specialty Lending will post 2.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sixth Street Specialty Lending Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.07 dividend. This represents a yield of 6.99%. This is an increase from Sixth Street Specialty Lending’s previous dividend of $0.05. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. Sixth Street Specialty Lending’s dividend payout ratio is 90.64%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sixth Street Specialty Lending

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TSLX. Ameriflex Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Trust Co. of Vermont purchased a new stake in Sixth Street Specialty Lending in the fourth quarter valued at $39,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Sixth Street Specialty Lending by 25.3% in the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 2,302 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 465 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP grew its holdings in shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending by 378.3% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 4,094 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $84,000 after purchasing an additional 3,238 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC increased its position in shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 4,673 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $100,000 after purchasing an additional 550 shares in the last quarter. 70.25% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.