Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) Lowered to “Sell” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note released on Friday.

Prospect Capital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PSEC opened at $3.70 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $4.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.65 billion, a PE ratio of -18.50 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Prospect Capital has a fifty-two week low of $3.68 and a fifty-two week high of $5.72.

Prospect Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th were paid a dividend of $0.045 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 26th. This represents a yield of 12.47%. Prospect Capital’s payout ratio is -270.00%.

Insider Activity

In other Prospect Capital news, Director William Gremp bought 19,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $4.29 per share, for a total transaction of $81,939.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 75,153 shares in the company, valued at approximately $322,406.37. The trade was a 34.07 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO John F. Barry bought 240,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $4.20 per share, with a total value of $1,008,000.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 81,981,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $344,324,118.60. This represents a 0.29 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders bought 2,548,000 shares of company stock worth $10,970,715. 28.25% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prospect Capital

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Prostatis Group LLC acquired a new stake in Prospect Capital in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $98,000. Palogic Value Management L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Prospect Capital by 50.8% during the 4th quarter. Palogic Value Management L.P. now owns 351,294 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,514,000 after acquiring an additional 118,400 shares in the last quarter. Comprehensive Money Management Services LLC bought a new stake in Prospect Capital during the 4th quarter worth $72,000. Ameriflex Group Inc. acquired a new position in Prospect Capital in the 4th quarter worth about $62,000. Finally, Alpine Global Management LLC bought a new position in Prospect Capital in the fourth quarter valued at about $346,000. 9.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Prospect Capital Company Profile

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.