Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) Sees Large Volume Increase – Should You Buy?

Prospect Capital Co. (NASDAQ:PSEC) saw an uptick in trading volume on Monday . 2,788,540 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 25% from the previous session’s volume of 2,234,105 shares.The stock last traded at $4.30 and had previously closed at $4.47.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Prospect Capital from $5.00 to $4.50 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 30th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Prospect Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th.

Prospect Capital Stock Down 6.5 %

The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $5.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $5.35. The company has a market capitalization of $1.81 billion, a PE ratio of -16.15 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.07. Prospect Capital had a return on equity of 13.53% and a net margin of 28.07%. The business had revenue of $212.26 million during the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.23 EPS.

Prospect Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 19th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.06 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 17.22%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 29th. Prospect Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently -276.92%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in shares of Prospect Capital in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Headlands Technologies LLC boosted its stake in Prospect Capital by 2,266.9% during the first quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 7,574 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 7,254 shares in the last quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Prospect Capital in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $64,000. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Prospect Capital in the 1st quarter valued at $73,000. Finally, Family Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Prospect Capital during the third quarter worth about $74,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 9.06% of the company’s stock.

About Prospect Capital

Prospect Capital Corporation is a business development company. It specializes in middle market, mature, mezzanine finance, later stage, emerging growth, leveraged buyouts, refinancing, acquisitions, recapitalizations, turnaround, growth capital, development, capital expenditures and subordinated debt tranches of collateralized loan obligations, cash flow term loans, market place lending and bridge transactions.