Short Interest in Hamilton Lane Incorporated (NASDAQ:HLNE) Grows By 25.8%

Hamilton Lane Incorporated (NASDAQ:HLNE) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,930,000 shares, a growth of 25.8% from the February 28th total of 2,330,000 shares. Approximately 7.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 533,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.5 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on HLNE. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Hamilton Lane from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $139.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Hamilton Lane from $169.00 to $152.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Hamilton Lane from $158.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer upgraded Hamilton Lane from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $186.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $170.71.

Institutional Trading of Hamilton Lane

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Hamilton Lane by 229.7% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,292,266 shares of the company’s stock valued at $191,321,000 after buying an additional 900,283 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Hamilton Lane by 28.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,901,933 shares of the company’s stock valued at $577,681,000 after purchasing an additional 863,326 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Hamilton Lane by 53.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,401,909 shares of the company’s stock valued at $236,516,000 after purchasing an additional 489,557 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Hamilton Lane during the fourth quarter worth $68,909,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Hamilton Lane by 31.1% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,743,033 shares of the company’s stock valued at $293,509,000 after purchasing an additional 413,015 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.40% of the company’s stock.

Hamilton Lane Trading Up 2.3 %

NASDAQ HLNE opened at $155.48 on Thursday. Hamilton Lane has a 52-week low of $108.34 and a 52-week high of $203.72. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $153.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $165.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.69 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 4.19, a current ratio of 4.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

Hamilton Lane (NASDAQ:HLNE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $168.26 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $158.86 million. Hamilton Lane had a return on equity of 36.69% and a net margin of 31.12%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.71 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Hamilton Lane will post 4.97 EPS for the current year.

Hamilton Lane Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 4th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.49 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. Hamilton Lane’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.16%.

About Hamilton Lane

Hamilton Lane Incorporated is a private equity firm specializing in early venture, emerging growth, turnaround, middle market, mature, mid-venture, bridge, buyout, distressed/vulture, loan, mezzanine in growth capital companies. It prefers to invest in energy, industrials, consumer discretionary, health care, real estate, information technology, utilities, and consumer services.