Runway Growth Finance Corp. to Issue — Dividend of $0.03 (NASDAQ:RWAY)

Runway Growth Finance Corp. (NASDAQ:RWAY) announced a — dividend on Friday, March 21st, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.03 per share on Monday, April 14th. This represents a yield of 15.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st.

Runway Growth Finance has increased its dividend payment by an average of 85.7% annually over the last three years. Runway Growth Finance has a dividend payout ratio of 98.8% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings fall. Equities analysts expect Runway Growth Finance to earn $1.59 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 100.6%.

Runway Growth Finance Price Performance

Shares of RWAY stock traded down $0.12 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $10.59. 650,527 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 309,341. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market cap of $395.32 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.18 and a beta of 0.59. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $11.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $10.76. Runway Growth Finance has a twelve month low of $9.87 and a twelve month high of $13.50.

Runway Growth Finance (NASDAQ:RWAY) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.03). Runway Growth Finance had a return on equity of 12.91% and a net margin of 27.05%. The firm had revenue of $33.78 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.10 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Runway Growth Finance will post 1.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Runway Growth Finance from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Runway Growth Finance from $11.00 to $10.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $11.65.

About Runway Growth Finance

Runway Growth Finance Corp. is a business development company specializing investments in senior-secured loans to late stage and growth companies. It prefers to make investments in companies engaged in the technology, life sciences, healthcare and information services, business services and select consumer services and products sectors.