Hercules Capital, Inc. (HTGC) To Go Ex-Dividend on February 26th

Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE:HTGC) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 11th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be paid a dividend of 0.47 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 26th.

Hercules Capital has increased its dividend by an average of 14.4% annually over the last three years. Hercules Capital has a payout ratio of 78.4% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings fall. Equities research analysts expect Hercules Capital to earn $2.03 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 78.8%.

Hercules Capital Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE HTGC opened at $21.50 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 2.72. Hercules Capital has a 1 year low of $16.95 and a 1 year high of $22.04. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $20.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.69. The firm has a market cap of $3.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.35 and a beta of 1.35.

Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The financial services provider reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.49. Hercules Capital had a return on equity of 17.19% and a net margin of 53.28%. The company had revenue of $121.78 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $124.09 million. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Hercules Capital will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on HTGC shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Hercules Capital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $19.50 to $21.50 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Hercules Capital from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of Hercules Capital in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Compass Point increased their target price on Hercules Capital from $18.25 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.40.

Hercules Capital Company Profile

Hercules Capital, Inc is a business development company. The firm specializing in providing venture debt, debt, senior secured loans, and growth capital to privately held venture capital-backed companies at all stages of development from startups to expansion stage including select publicly listed companies and select special opportunity lower middle market companies that require additional capital to fund acquisitions, recapitalizations and refinancing and established-stage companies.