Legal & General Group Plc Trims Stock Position in New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC)

Legal & General Group Plc cut its position in New Mountain Finance Co. (NASDAQ:NMFC) by 6.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 713,975 shares of the company’s stock after selling 49,734 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.66% of New Mountain Finance worth $8,036,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets purchased a new position in New Mountain Finance during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Fox Run Management L.L.C. purchased a new position in shares of New Mountain Finance during the fourth quarter worth about $114,000. MQS Management LLC bought a new position in shares of New Mountain Finance in the fourth quarter worth approximately $123,000. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its stake in New Mountain Finance by 4,746.5% in the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 10,953 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,000 after purchasing an additional 10,727 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New World Advisors LLC bought a new stake in New Mountain Finance during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $147,000. 32.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director David Ogens purchased 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $11.44 per share, with a total value of $57,200.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 179,020 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,047,988.80. This trade represents a 2.87 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 11.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

New Mountain Finance Price Performance

NMFC opened at $9.74 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.28 and a beta of 0.84. 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 Co. has a 12-month low of $8.84 and a 12-month high of $12.81. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $10.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $11.28.

New Mountain Finance (NASDAQ:NMFC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.01). New Mountain Finance had a return on equity of 11.25% and a net margin of 30.28%. The business had revenue of $92.89 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.23 million. Equities analysts predict that New Mountain Finance Co. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

New Mountain Finance Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 17th were paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 17th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 13.14%. New Mountain Finance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 123.08%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of New Mountain Finance from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th.

New Mountain Finance 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.